Nature
Cornell Lab Bird Cams
Kids watch live cameras trained on real nests and feeders, with hawks, ospreys, albatrosses and toucans going about their day.
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology points live cameras at nests and feeders around the world, and the cams page reads like a list of tiny reality shows. Red-tailed hawks raise chicks high above Cornell’s campus, ospreys haul fish to a Montana nest, a royal albatross sits on its egg in New Zealand, and toucans and tanagers crowd fruit feeders in Panama. The FeederWatch cam looks in on a busy backyard feeder in New York, a handy place to start telling chickadees from nuthatches. If a nest is quiet, the highlights page and YouTube clips gather the big moments: hatching, first flights, surprise visitors. Each cam links into the All About Birds guide for looking up whatever just landed. Following a single nest over a season looks like the most rewarding way to use it, almost like a nature serial.
- Ages
- Bird watchers of every age
- Works on
- Web browser
- Topics
- Nature, Science
- Languages
- English
- Listed
- 2026-10-18
What kids do
- Watch a hawk or osprey nest live
- Spot birds at a Panama fruit feeder
- Follow chicks from hatching to first flight
- Look up a bird in All About Birds
Who it suits
Bird watchers of every age.
Notes for parents
Run by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology since 2012, and reports describe the cams turning up in elementary classrooms. Watching asks for little reading, and the Lab’s K–12 site pairs the cams with a Life in a Nest lesson.
What you need
- Web browser
- Internet connection
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