The Owls Are Back: A New Season, a New Camera, and Why Lighting Matters

Incubation underway -- female Great Horned Owl on her nest, with the male perched nearby, an early moment in the 2026 nesting season.

Each winter, the return of the Great Horned Owls to the Copper Country Bird Club's nest box on Skyline Center in Hancock is one of the most exciting signs that the nesting season is underway. This year, the pair has returned once again - and we’re happy to report that at least one egg has already been observed in the nest.

A screenshot showing a brief glimpse of an egg (identified by the purple arrow) as the female appears to be repositioning it. (Screenshot taken by Leonard Bohmann on 23 Jan 2026)

Along with the owls’ return, we’ve also introduced a new nest webcam system. While the new camera offers some major improvements, it has also come with a few early technical challenges. We want to share what’s new, what we’re still working through, and why some of these issues - particularly around lighting - are so important to get right.

What’s New With the Nest Camera

This season, the nest cam has been upgraded to an Amcrest IP PTZ (Pan–Tilt–Zoom) camera, a system designed to deliver clearer images and greater flexibility than our previous setup.

The Great Horned Owl nest box at Skyline Commons in Hancock with its new webcam installed.

In practical terms, this means:

• Much higher image resolution, allowing viewers to see finer details in plumage, nestling developments, and behaviors

• Remote pan, tilt, and zoom capability, which helps us frame the nest without physically disturbing the site

• Direct streaming to YouTube, making the cam easier to access and more widely available overall

• Low-light and night viewing options, including infrared illumination

  
  

The camera is also built for outdoor use in harsh conditions; which is important for a nest that has to withstand wind, snow, and spring storms.

Our intention with this upgrade was to improve the educational value of the cam while continuing to observe the owls as unobtrusively as possible.

Male Great Horned Owl delivering a cottontail rabbit to the nest - a glimpse into provisioning behavior. This clip was captured with the older camera system and highlights the image-quality improvements of the upgraded camera shown below.

Female Great Horned Owl on the nest under infrared illumination. The upgraded camera provides greater clarity and detail, even while showing a wider view of the nest box than the earlier video shown above.

The Glitches We’ve Been Working Through

As is often the case with new equipment, the transition hasn’t been entirely seamless.

One of the main issues we’ve encountered involves the camera’s built-in white LED lighting. While the camera allows this bright white light to be turned off in favor of infrared illumination, the controls for switching between lighting modes have not always behaved as expected. In part, this appears to be related to how the camera detects nighttime conditions. Because nearby parking lot lights remain on after dark, the system may not consistently recognize when night has fallen, causing it to default back to visible white light instead of infrared.

When lighting adjustments are attempted — or possibly when network updates occur — the system has occasionally disconnected the livestream from YouTube. As a result, viewers may notice temporary outages, interruptions, or lighting conditions that aren’t ideal. We know this can be frustrating, especially during such an active and exciting stage of the nesting season.

For now, the lighting mode is being manually adjusted each evening, though the behavior of the system remains somewhat erratic. We appreciate your patience as we continue working toward a more stable and reliable solution.

Why Bright White Light Is a Problem for Owls

Our caution around lighting is not based on a technical preference but a biological concern.

Great Horned Owls are highly adapted for life in low light. Their eyes are large relative to their head size and packed with light-sensitive cells that allow them to detect movement and hunt efficiently at night. This sensitivity is a major advantage in the wild, but it also means that sudden or prolonged exposure to bright white light can be disruptive.

Designed for darkness, a Great Horned Owl’s oversized, light-sensitive eyes excel at detecting motion in low light. (Picture taken by Jean Beaufort [CC0 1.0, Public Domain])

Bright lighting at the nest can:

• Interfere with natural behavior,

• Increase stress during incubation, when minimizing disturbance is critical

• Affect how adults rest, orient themselves, or respond to their surroundings, and

• Impact their visual acuity, important for hunting and protection

  
  

Infrared lighting, by contrast, allows cameras to “see” in the dark without introducing visible light into the nest environment. From the owls’ perspective, the nest remains dark and natural - even while viewers are able to observe activity due to the camera's sensitivity. To be clear, owls possess highly adapted, rod-rich eyes for extreme low-light sensitivity but that sensitivity does not include light in the infrared range.

For us, this indicates a clear priority. Protecting the owls’ well-being matters more than maintaining a perfectly visible video feed. If addressing lighting issues means occasional downtime, that is a tradeoff we are willing to make.

If white light is bright enough to reveal full color in the video feed, it’s likely exceeding what is appropriate for owls, whose vision is extremely sensitive to light.

For comparison to the above, this is the nest box illuminated with infrared light, which produces a grayscale image and allows viewing without exposing the owls to unnecessary visible light.

Where Things Stand

We are actively working to resolve the lighting control and streaming issues, and we’re exploring solutions that allow the camera to remain in infrared mode and how we can minimize disruptions to the livestream. This may involve software updates, revised settings, or additional adjustments to the system.

Nest webcams offer a rare window into the lives of wild birds, but they also come with the responsibility of ethical wildlife viewing. So, we accept the occasional imperfection in exchange for minimizing our impact on the animals we’re privileged to observe.

A Community Effort

Projects like this don’t happen in isolation, and we want to take a moment to recognize the partners who make the Great Horned Owl nest cam possible.

We extend our sincere thanks to Moyle Development, which owns the building where the nest box and camera are mounted. Their willingness to host the nest site and support ongoing monitoring plays a critical role in allowing this project to continue year after year.

We’re also deeply grateful to the Copper Country Intermediate School District for sponsoring this project and making technical support possible. Through that support, we’ve been able to work with REMC 1 (Regional Educational Media Center 1), which serves local schools and has provided essential guidance and troubleshooting for the livestream. Their expertise has helped us navigate the challenges of running a live wildlife camera while keeping animal welfare front and center.

Their support helps ensure that this project remains both educational and responsible, and we’re thankful to have them as partners.

Thank You for Watching - and for Caring

We’re grateful to everyone who follows the CCBC Great Horned Owl nest cam and shares in the excitement of each new season. Your interest supports education, conservation, and a deeper appreciation for the wildlife that calls the Copper Country home.

Thank you for your patience as we fine-tune this new camera system - and for supporting our commitment to putting the owls first.