The MartinCam Story
The Purple MartinCam was an idea that was pursued and made possible by a number of key individuals who are devoted to purple martin recovery and in the Pacific Northwest. They felt that a nestbox cam might be a successful way to share their interest and information about this fascinating swallow with the general public and other scientists.

Update February 2008
MartinCam - Not active this season. Stay tuned next year.

Earlier this spring select martin nest-boxes were specially equipped with cameras about the size of a quarter. Starlings and other bird species were fended off from the nest boxes until the later arriving martins built up ownership of the new boxes.

Our WildWatchCam project location is somewhat remote so a direct-feed to the Internet is not possible at this time, but we are able to bring you short scenes of the nesting life of the western purple martin. Our video scenes and still photographs will be updated as the nest season progresses. Enjoy the scenes and information links and pay special attention to the section entitled Things You Can Do to Help Purple Martins. This particular species seems very dependent on the use of artificial nest structures.

We express special appreciation to the following individuals: Tim Brown, Doug Canning, Kevin Li, Daniel Hull and Michelle Tirhi.