Bird Onsen — A Birdbath at the Foot of Mt. Fuji 日本語

Bird Onsen System How the birdbath is watched, and what it uses

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A camera watches over a birdbath in a forest garden at the foot of Mt. Fuji, day and night, and keeps a record of the birds that come. This page describes how that works and the equipment it uses. Most of it can be bought online.

An outdoor network camera, about 1 m from the basin, films the birdbath. The video reaches a laptop indoors over a LAN cable and Wi-Fi, where the open-source video recorder Frigate finds birds in the scenes with movement and records them. The species is identified by a classification model trained on images from this camera that the photographer has sorted by eye.

The laptop sends the video to a YouTube live stream, adds up the records, writes out the files of the main page and uploads them to Cloudflare Pages. It connects to the internet through Starlink. The counting, the writing-out and the streaming are done by the photographer's own programs.

A forest garden. On the left, a dark stone basin on a black iron stand in front of a tree. On the right, a cedar board and camera wrapped in green tape lean against a black iron trolley, pointing at the basin. A black cable lies coiled on the moss in front.
The basin (left) and the camera (right)

Water

Plumbing diagram

Plumbing diagram. A watering timer is fitted to the tap, and a hose carries the water to a nozzle on a tree branch, which drops it onto the basin from directly above. Water tap Fitted directly to the tap Watering timer Lets water out 4–5 times a day, at set times Hose (laid along the ground) Nozzle Fixed to a twig of the tree behind the basin Drops onto the middle of the basin Basin Kimachi-stone birdbath, on an iron stand

Basin

Kimachi-stone birdbath (medium)

A basin of Kimachi stone, made by the Kimachi Stone Lantern Cooperative in Matsue, Shimane Prefecture. 45 cm wide, 38 cm deep and 9 cm high; it weighs about 15 kg. The photographer received it as a thank-you gift for a hometown tax donation (furusato nōzei) to Matsue City through Rakuten.

ADSee it on Rakuten Ichiba (Matsue City hometown tax, in Japanese)

Basin stand

Iris Ohyama Ball Planter Stand, Black, 50

An iron stand for a plant pot, about 44 cm across and 50 cm high. The basin sits on its top ring.

See it on Yodobashi.com (in Japanese)

Watering timer

SKD Mizuyari Meijin automatic watering starter kit (fountain and mist nozzle set)

A set of a watering timer, hose, nozzles and connectors. The timer is fitted to the tap, and the hose carries the water to the nozzle.

ADSee it on Amazon.co.jp

Care

At about 8 every morning, the photographer scrubs the basin with a brush and changes the water.

In winter the watering timer is not used, and the basin is looked after by hand: water is poured in from a bucket, and frozen water is melted with hot water. Nothing electric, such as a heater, is used.

Power and network

Wiring diagram

Wiring diagram. The outdoor camera is connected by LAN cable, through a window, to a PoE injector indoors, then to a Wi-Fi extender, the home network and the laptop, which sends to YouTube and the public page on the internet. Outdoors Camera About 1 m from the basin, on a leaning board Outdoor LAN cable, 10 m (joint sealed with self-fusing tape) Window Indoors Flat LAN cable through the window PoE injector Sends mains power to the camera over LAN LAN cable, 3 m Wi-Fi extender Plugs into a socket; camera on its LAN port Wi-Fi Home network Wi-Fi router and Starlink LAN cable Laptop Finds and records birds, identifies species Through the home network and Starlink YouTube Live stream Public page Cloudflare Pages

Camera

Reolink RLC-811A

An outdoor network camera: 4K video, 5× optical zoom, waterproof to IP67. It takes both power and data over a single LAN cable (Power over Ethernet, PoE). At night it switches to black-and-white infrared video.

ADSee it on Amazon.co.jp

Camera mount

The camera is fixed to the end of a cedar board from a DIY store (about 500 yen), which leans against an iron plant-pot trolley that was already in the garden. The board and the trolley are held together with hook-and-loop cable ties. The pale wood and the white camera stood out too much, so both are wrapped in green cloth tape.

ADSee the cable ties on Amazon.co.jp

Outdoor LAN cable

Outdoor LAN cable, CAT6, 10 m (KC-12971)

A LAN cable with a double weather-resistant sheath that stands up to rain and sun, rated for PoE. It runs from the camera to a window of the house.

ADSee it on Amazon.co.jp

Sealing the joint

Nitoms self-fusing tape (M5010)

Wrapped round the joint between the camera's short lead and the outdoor LAN cable to keep the rain out. Stretched as it is wound, the tape fuses into a single layer.

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LAN cable through the window

Sanwa Supply flat CAT6A extension LAN cable for gaps (KB-FL6ASTP-EX)

A LAN cable that is thin and flat in the middle, so it can pass through the gap of a closed window frame into the house. It is rated for PoE.

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PoE injector

Planex gigabit PoE injector (ING-ADE3AT2)

Puts mains power onto the LAN cable and sends it to the camera, so the camera needs no power socket nearby — one LAN cable is enough.

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Indoor LAN cable

UGREEN Category 7 LAN cable, 3 m

Connects the PoE injector to the Wi-Fi extender.

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Wi-Fi extender

Buffalo Wi-Fi 5 extender, plug-in type (WEX-1166DHPL/N)

An extender that plugs straight into a wall socket. The camera's cable goes into its LAN port, and it carries the camera's video to the home network over Wi-Fi.

ADSee it on Amazon.co.jp

Wi-Fi router

Buffalo AirStation (WSR-2533DHP-CB)

The home Wi-Fi router. It is no longer made.

See Buffalo's product page (in Japanese)

Laptop

A laptop that was already at hand, connected to the home network by LAN cable. It runs the Frigate video recorder and the photographer's own programs, which record the video, find birds and identify their species, add up the records and send out the stream.

Internet

Starlink (internet access by satellite).