Garden Secrets Cedar Bird Nest Box & Bird Nest Box Colour Camera with Audio

I purchased this bird box camera combo for my fathers birthday expecting an easy one stop solution to the observation of nesting birds, this pruchase proved not to be so. It seems the suppliers have gathered the various components and presented them in this kit form, inside the box was a list of items: bird box, camera, wire, photo to scart adapter etc with their itemised price, £10 for a phono to scary adaptor wow that's steep.The bird box is of a good size and features a large hole (compared to the entrance on the front elevation) on the right side to allow light into the box to aid the cameras performance. The hole is covered by a clear plastic fixed with a single screw which allows it to be swivelled out of the way to..... well I'm not sure why maybe it's there to improve access when.... who knows? The plastic cover was cracked due I presume to the screw on which it is hinged being over tightened. The box has a small rear hole over which a hanging plate is fixed to allow the box to be hung on a nail or screw. The lid of the box is held on a wobbly hinge and is secured in place by 2 screws, no easy just lift the lid to access.The camera is of metal construction which makes for a solid build. The camera is held on a U shaped bracket which provides some movement to suit ailment on the subject. From the camera a short lead of around 6" terminating in 3 sockets, 2 of which are phono sockets for audio and video while the 3rd carries the power to the camera. A sufficiently long length of wire plugs into the 3 sockets which is trailed to your monitor or TV, in my fathers case through an open window. A phono/scart adapter is included so as to facilitate the connection to a monitor or TV, although I have not yet tried I don't see any reason why the lead from the camera can not be plugged into a video or DVD recorder either via the phono plugs or scart adapter. The quality of the image is satisfactory however as can be expected from its miniature size far from 4K.A clip is screwed to the underside of the box lid to allow the camera to be held in place, this arrangement is far from ideal as the tension in the clip and the play available between camera and clip is such that it is far from secure with the camera moving easily from its ideal position. This is something I intend to remedy with a new bracket or bulldog clip arrangement.I am concerned about the connections between the short lead from the camera and the long lead which I trail through the window to the TV, my fears being their inability to cope with the weather and their susceptibility to rust which will lead to a bad connection, water ingress into the wire and hence no picture or sound. The connections between the short lead from the camera and the long extension lead to the TV could be contained inside the box possibly being fixed to the lid with wire clips, however this would mean having to remove the lid, disrupt the birds every time you wanted to make your observations, plugging the long extension lead into the short lead from the camera which isn't ideal. You could permanently fit the long extension lead to the short lead from the camera containing the sockets inside the box but unless you are able to have the lead fed through your window or wall permanently what do you do with the long extension lead and it's vulnerable sockets? This is a problem we are still trying to resolve.Instructions are provided but are of little use having suffered greatly in translation from Chinese to English, and provide no suggestions as to how best protect the sockets.In conclusion I would now buy the components separately and try to seek out a solution which avoided having to have wires draped through an open window to the box avoiding the inevitable problems of rusty sockets.

I bought this product in October for a Christmas present for my Dad so I didn't actually look at it properly until he had opened it on Christmas Day. My Dad has made his own nesting boxes over the years so I was concerned that he might not think the quality was up to his standard. I needn't have worried, this is a top quality bird box and he was over the moon with it, and particularly liked the idea of having a camera to watch the birds nesting in there (hopefully). It took him no time to get the box, camera and electricals installed (very straight forward). He did have a slight problem with the power supply but a quick email to Garden Secrets and that was sorted straight away.I've told all my friends about this product and they are going to purchase for their various partners, fathers etc. in due course. I even think I might buy one for myself. In the meantime, just waiting for the blue tits to take up residence in my Dad's box!

The box itself is fine but the camera is very disppointing. just after a year the first one failed so purchased an identical replacement thinking I was just unlucky. Unfortunately, the second camera was too identical to the first and failed after 13 months, just as a family of Blue Tits had hatched and were feeding well. Now it means we cannot see the outcome of this family as I will have to wait until the nest is clear before attempting a replacement of a different manufacturer of camera.

This product did not work on receipt. I had written it off to experience, but as an after thought gave the suppliers a ring. They seem to know exactly what was wrong and supplied me with a free replacement camera and connections. Now works perfectly.

We had purchased a couple of bird box cameras early last year. We loved watching the chicks hatching and developing in the nest so I decided to buy this one as a Christmas gift for my brother. This means I can’t comment on how easy/hard it was to put together, or how ‘sturdy’ it is, but it didn’t seem too expensive, and I’m hoping that it gives my brother lots of happy hours watching the chicks in their nest.

as the product was a gift , have now contacted the recipient to find out how things were going. all working fine very satisfied with everything , just waiting for the birds to arrive and take up residence

Bought April 2012.Nov 2014: The picture is good and camera is still working several years later. The box has housed a blue-tit over pretty much the whole period - he goes off somewhere else over the breeding season, and then comes back each year. My parents love watching him come into the box to sleep every night, and showing him to any visitors.Jan 2017: The box itself eventually had to be replaced but lasted well - over 4 years. My father has installed the camera in a new nest box placed in the same position. There is still a single blue-tit using the new box to overwinter although it is obviously a different bird now. It is very cute to watch the bird come in for the night, fluff its feathers up and go to sleep. You can see it rock as it breathes, and periodically it wakes up, fluffs its feathers and buries its head back under its wing. The night vision is great for seeing this.

Bought this last year as a birthday pressie for hubby. To our delight when we randomly checked it last week we could see we had a family in there, seven eggs - all of which have now hatched. Black and white image on the TV but good quality, photo doesn't do it justice - can clearly see the babies and mum and dad feeding them. We are really pleased with it - nice quality bird box as well. Pity I couldn't upload a video showing mum feeding chicks - so cute!