Birdwatching Online

The BirdLife Australia Discovery Centre is an interactive, interpretive hub that provides opportunities for people to learn about, and engage with, birds in their natural habitat. What better way to do so than by observing our resident pair of White-bellied sea eagles on the nest? EagleCAM, gives bird lovers, researchers and scientists 24-hour access to the lives of nesting sea eagles and allows us to investigate their habitat, behaviour and how we can help them survive long term.

Established in 2009, Sea-EagleCAM is a live, remote feed that operates out of the Discovery Centre in the Newington Armory at Sydney Olympic Park, close to the Parramatta River. Sea-EagleCAM was started and funded by a small group of BirdLife Australia volunteers, who continue to develop and operate the technology that brings the sea eagles to your screen.

This live HD webcam feed from Port Lincoln, South Australia, provides a spectacular close-up view of an osprey nest. The nest is on a barge at the entrance to the Lincoln Cove Marina in Porter Bay, South Australia.

In 2015, the owners of Calypso Star Charters purchased a disused barge moored near the Port Lincoln Marina, on which a pair of endangered Eastern ospreys had been nesting for many years prior. The nest was carefully moved from the previous barge to the current one as it is higher out of the water and more stable. A security camera and solar panels were installed so the nest could be monitored 24/7. Watch these beautiful birds in action with the sea in the background.

The FalconCam Project studies, monitors and records the breeding and natural behaviour of a resident Peregrine family on the Charles Sturt University Orange campus. It is run by a voluntary group of staff and ex-staff, using modern equipment to record the falcons’ progress and for the worldwide conservation effort, bringing four separate full camera feeds - audio and video - which stream through YouTube Live.

Make sure you have your sound turned up when the falcons are at home, and more so when the chicks are active (October – November). Live and in higher definition and falcon-screeching audio, 24/7/365.

Involving more than 300 people across Victoria, the Victorian Peregrine Project (VPP) is a unique and exciting volunteer-based conservation initiative, with more than 500 volunteer days invested each year. The VPP combines three key areas of activity: field research, community engagement and education, and developing innovative management techniques for site managers wishing to conserve this species. In spring each year, volunteers monitor Peregrine nest sites attended by breeding adults which have been fitted with coloured leg bands. With support from Mirvac, the VPP has provided advice on the installation and hosting of a live, web-based video link to a camera trained on the nest site at 367 Collins Street, Melbourne.

Since 1991, a pair of Peregrine falcons has been observed in a nest on a ledge at this location. As the only known Peregrine falcon nesting site within Melbourne’s CBD, the building plays an important role in the ongoing breeding success of these fiercely territorial birds. 

From the foyer of the building (and on their computer screens at home), thousands of people each year enjoy watching CCTV footage of the birds as they lay their eggs and hatch their chicks from August onwards.