Photo © Hugh Davis

How To Report Nest Cam Data

Nest cams are increasingly becoming a tool in the NestWatcher’s toolbox. Many people want to know how to report their nest cams information to NestWatch. With an abundance of footage and known egg-laying, hatch, and fledge dates, the data quality can be very high. But how much is too much?

Just because you check your nest cams hourly doesn’t mean you need to report more than once a day. In fact, most nest-success analyses typically look at “daily survival rate” (which can then be extrapolated through the entire nest period). Increments of less than 24 hours are therefore not particularly needed.

Simply keep a NestWatch data sheet at hand to remind yourself to collect the minimum amount of information, so you don’t have to go back through all your footage (or your memory) later. Nest cams can be particularly useful for learning about under-studied species, such as owls. If you don’t yet have a nest box camera, but would like to learn more, check out our slideshow on installing a nest box camera.