I have a Wyze Cam OG set up as shown. I am trying to get it to record hummingbirds at my feeder, but it will not register the motion of the birds. Yesterday I even had two of them at the feeder at the same time (rare for hummingbirds), and it still didn’t trigger. Sensitivity at 100%, tried both with and without detection zone, still no joy. It sees a broomstick I poke at the feeder, it sees a sliver of my neighbour’s hat when he walks by, but not the birds. Due to foot traffic and aesthetics, I can’t really move the feeder.
Would the v4 or OG telephoto be a better choice for this? I have no problem buying different hardware if it will do what I want, but I’d rather not just throw money at random solutions.
If I were to guess, I would say that the hummers are too small to be detected by the camera at that distance especially taking into consideration that there is no solid background colour behind the feeder. You’d probably get same results with a V4. OG Tele might give you better results but that’s just my guess.
I’m also just guessing that it might be possible that a Cam v4 would give better results because I think it’s got a better processor and is working with more pixels in the image. I wondered if frame rate would figure into it because of the hummingbirds’ speed, but Cam v4 and Cam OG are listed with the same rates. Based on the photo you shared, I would guess that distance is a major factor in your results.
Thank you for sharing the photo, by the way! Things like that are really helpful for understanding your problem.
I think you’re doing the right things with settings. What you’re describing makes me think of a recent experience with rabbits and a planter hanging off my mom’s front porch. When I saw that a rabbit was building a nest in the planter, I decided to put a spare Cam OG out there and mount it a few feet away to monitor the location, but I wasn’t getting Pet notifications until I adjusted MOTION DETECTION SENSITIVITY, which I set to 80, and that’s on a larger and slower-moving target.
When I think about a Wyze Cam setup to capture hummingbirds, this with a Cam v4 and extra lenses is what comes to mind. The additional lenses really help, I think, but the camera itself is also considerably closer to the feeder than what you’re showing, so something like that might be a consideration if you can still achieve your æsthetic goal and not hamper foot traffic.
What caught my eye was my PS V3 caught a hummingbird from about 12 ft away. Going to be careful here–Descriptive Alerts caught it. I’m not sure if a “normal event” would have tagged it.
Also beware the whole bird detection is in its infancy. Even if you had a BCP in the bird Feeder, only in the last couple of weeks has it seemed to properly I’d a bird as a bird vs a pet or motion.
Hi - I have a question regarding hummingbird capture on Wyze - I have tried the macro lens, but it is not working - is the new OG camera any good ? My feeder is about 1 ft away from the cameera and I ma desperately trying to catch one particular hummer that seems to be out of range - it is supposed to be in the west, but decided to come to the east. I would like to get a close up of him to determine if it is indeed the species I think it is. How can I get a clearer picture ?
I have not tried the add on macro lens on an OG yet, but can. However from my observations, the add on macro lens works well, but does result in a very a narrow depth of field range.
When I asked Wyze’s AI tool about the distance for the Close-up Lens’s focus, it told me that…
…so your 1′ may be too far outside this range for whatever camera you’re using in conjunction with the Close-up Lens.
Did you take a look at @lmester’s post I linked above? That shows lenses from inexpensive reading glasses being used with a Cam v4 to record a hummingbird feeder, and I think the results are excellent! Check out that topic to see (and hear) the videos.
