Nestwatch.ie streaming everyday drama live from bird nests

Nestwatch.ie offers daily glimpses into the lives of nesting birds, up close and in real-time. Its live cams are currently streaming from inside bird nests at The Digital Hub campus in the heart of Dublin city.

Using smart nest boxes equipped with cameras and sensors, Nestwatch captures video and images that reveal the quiet, everyday life inside bird nests, from egg-laying to fledging.

It combines simple technology with community engagement to support biodiversity and offer an antidote to “climate calamity fatigue” — that sense of helplessness in the face of environmental challenges. Bird populations across Ireland are in decline, due to habitat loss and the disappearance of natural nesting sites and one of Nestwatch’s goals is to create safe, monitored nesting sites to help restore urban bird populations.

Nestwatch is the brainchild of Colum Foley, who studied Fine Art, Multimedia, and User Experience Design, and now works in software development with xwerx — a leading User Experience (UX) design agency, who have an office at The Digital Hub.

Colum submitted Nestwatch to the Climate Immersion Fellowship for supporting creatives to engage with issues of climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation.

Other partners are xwerx who supported the development of the hardware and software that powers the smart nest boxes and live-streaming system and The Digital Hub who provided essential IT infrastructure and facilitated the placement of bird boxes and cameras on The Digital Hub campus.

Nestwatch aims to develop a scalable model that can be replicated in other communities and cities and use data – enhanced through AI and machine learning – to support evidence-based conservation and planning decisions.

Learn more about Nestwatch and view the live streams at https://nestwatch.ie/

Author
Digital Hub Team