Bird Cams Around the World

And the last question I wanted to address is the one I get the most — and that is in regards to streaming video. We know that many of our viewers would like to see the cam images in streaming video, like other cams on the Web. Unfortunately streaming video is not possible with the broadband service we must use to get the images to our website. Due to the rural location of the Refuge, we must use a satellite dish service to send the images to our website servers because there are no other options for broadband service at the Refuge. Satellite dish service is the most expensive and least flexible broadband service; however, it is the only service we can use.

Our satellite dish provider sets limits on the amount of bandwidth each user is given to prevent any one customer from “hogging” all the bandwidth. If we exceed the upload limit, the company cuts off our signal to get us within our allowance, and the cams go dark. We actively manage the upload volume by limiting the hours of operation and the image-updating times. But please note that the length of time that you watch our cams does not affect our limit. You are downloading the images using your individual Internet Service Provider, and so your visits to the cam pages will not impact our dish service.