Specification

The Comfy Creatures monitoring station is the world's first camera and environmental sensing device purpose designed to be installed in nest boxes, other artificial tree cavities and natural hollows. It's a stand-alone, solar-powered device that streams directly to an iPhone or Android smartphone using the free Comfy Creatures Monitor app.

Monitoring tree cavities has long been a frustrating challenge for professionals and enthusiasts alike. Our monitoring station is a complete stand-alone system, ready to fit to existing nest boxes and cavities or supplied installed in one of our nest boxes. It doesn't require any external infrastructure.

Streaming video and capturing data from the station is completely unobtrusive. The station has three lighting modes: natural white light for daylight photos and video, true no-glow night vision (950 nm), and a pest alarm (flashing red light with a buzzer and vibration) to deter invasive species. On public installations, the natural light and pest alarm are PIN-protected.

Two probes measure the external and internal temperature, the latter at the height of the animals in the cavity. This makes it possible to study how well different nest box and artificial cavity designs regulate their internal temperature. Air pressure, humidity and ambient light round out the environmental sensing.

Observations can be taken live or on an automated schedule, capturing a photo and the sensor data. Each observation is paired with information about the nest box and its installation, recorded once during commissioning using a wizard in the app. Observations are stored on the user's phone and synced to the public database later, which supports monitoring on remote sites without an internet connection.

The database lets anyone see which nest box designs and installation variables have been successful, and for which species. It enables a scientific approach to developing artificial cavities that best support our endangered arboreal fauna.

The station streams live video and data over more than 100 m with a clear line of sight (vegetation reduces this somewhat), so nest boxes can be installed at heights that suit the animals. Combined with solar-charged batteries, this makes monitoring almost effortless: thirty nest boxes can be inspected in about as many minutes.

The monitoring station, smartphone app and public database are designed and manufactured in Australia by Comfy Creatures.

Features

• Direct, subscription-free wireless connection to iPhone and Android smartphones
• Solar-charged batteries
• Live video and photo capture
• Live or scheduled observations
• Light modes: natural white light or true no-glow night vision
• Pest alarm: red light, buzzer and vibration
• Environmental sensing: internal and external temperature probes, plus onboard humidity, air pressure and ambient light sensors
• Continuous environmental logging
• Scheduled wake times

See the General Use and Commissioning pages for a full description of the station's software features.