[BillyBones]

If anyone has been to the Budgie board, you might have seen my thread there about my Budgie cam. I have a question I can't seem to find an answer to.

I have a webcam broadcasting my English Budgies in their nest box. Of course it's dark inside so in order to see anything I have to have lights on inside. I used infrared LEDs like you would find on your TV remote. I'm sure you noticed the LED at the front of the remote does not seem to light up. It does, just we can't see IR light. Most CMOS cameras however can including the webcam I have. Try taking about any digital camera or cellphone cam and watch what happens when you point a remote into it and hit a button.

Now with that all said, I watched a program about wild Budgies on PBS some time ago. They mentioned that the little freakles on a Budgie's cheek were used to help them indentify one another and this was done using infrared light. This to me would mean Budgies have vision that is infrared sensitive similar to a digital camera.

My nest box is lit up with 4 IR LEDs. I did try to test out whether the Buds would react to the light. Before the eggs were even laid, I took a visible LED and an IR LED and shined the lights into the nest box. Keep in mind that LEDs have a narrow beam like you would find in a flashlight. When I moved the light around the box, the female only seemed to take notice to the visible light LED. When I moved the beam around from the IR LED she didn't react the same way, she didn't follow the light.

I've have the IR lights running in the box for several days now and everything is fine. I'm just wondering if the Buds really can see the light and if they can, are there any adverse affects that you all can think of from lighting up the box day after day (assuming that they can see the IR light at all).

There isn't any issues with heat or harmful rays from these type of lights. They are very low power (1.2 volts) and should not be confused with UV light which is completely different.

So what do you think?