About Maison Hina

How it started

When visiting friends in Germany several years ago we were surprised that birds were flying in and out of a birdbox right next to their house, just above where we were chatting and laughing outside! That made us wonder whether we could attract nesting birds in our own urban area, so we put up a birdbox (without camera) on a pole in the garden.

One year we did have birds nesting but it was frustrating that we didn’t know how many or how they were developing, or even when they’d all flown the nest. That was when we found an excellent wild bird website in Germany with multiple live video streams from inside nestboxes. I tried to copy their design to build our own birdbox with a small computer and infrared camera, and it was truly magical when we were able to see the parents flying in and out as well as the growing chicks inside.

Location

We live in an urban area in central Japan. There are a lot of houses around and people walking by, but the birds don’t seem to mind when nesting. Nearby there’s a small park with pond and trees that they fly to and from.

The name

Maison Hina (メゾンひな) combines the French word for house (maison) with the Japanese word for chick (ひな, pronounced “hee-na”).

History

The earliest season documented here is 2021, written up from a video by Shimesan on YouTube. Our own nesting observations start from 2023.

The technical setup has changed over the years. The first nest box used a Raspberry Pi 3 B+ with a camera and infrared LED — video only, available on the local network. The current box uses a Raspberry Pi 4, adds a USB microphone, and streams live to YouTube.