DOC albatross webcam gets upgrade, live streams to wider audience

December 14, 2019

The Department of Conservation is teaming up with a US university that specialises in live streaming birds.

Dunedin's royal albatross cam is getting a high-tech upgrade, with the already popular webcam set to be broadcast to an audience of nearly twenty million viewers.

The Department of Conservation is pairing up with a New York university which specialises in live streams of birds all over the globe.

Since the first egg was discovered here a hundred years ago, the Otago Peninsula's albatross have been admired by fans around the globe and watched by millions through their computer screens.

Now the royal albatross camera is getting an upgrade, forming a partnership with New York's Cornell University's lab of Ornithology.

American Charles Eldermire is installing a new state of the art camera on the Taiaroa head colony this week to broadcast to a whole new market.

Since 2016 the royal albatross cam has had an audience of around three and a half million and with this new partnership, that viewership could reach 20 million each year.

The camera is crystal clear, able to be zoomed in and out and can pan when new chicks start to wander.

Perhaps it's best new feature though is the 24/7 access showing the birds through day and night.

"We know that the birds do come in at night and they're still active at night, you may even see feeding of the chick at night or change overs at the nest," says DOC's Sharyn Broni.

The live stream will be broadcast on the 'all about birds' website a site that showcases some of the most intriguing birds worldwide.


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