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NEW GEAR: Discover the Birds You Don’t See - Using the ZEISS Secacam 1 for Birdwatching

26 January 2026
​By James Hamilton

If you’re a birder, you’ll know that some of the most interesting activity happens when we’re not around — at dawn, dusk, or long after dark. Whether it’s shy woodland species, nocturnal visitors, or birds quietly feeding in your garden before sunrise, much of their behaviour goes unseen.

The new ZEISS Secacam 1, launching today (26 January 2026), offers birders an accessible way to uncover that hidden side of bird life — without disturbance, hides, or long hours of waiting.

​I’ve spent some hands-on time with the camera, and here’s how it fits into a birder’s toolkit.

Seeing Bird Behaviour Day and Night
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While trail cameras are often associated with mammals, the Secacam 1 is just as useful for birds. With 60 black no-glow LEDs, a highly light-sensitive sensor and ZEISS IR-Boost technology, the camera captures sharp images and video both in daylight and complete darkness.

For birders, this opens up fascinating opportunities:
  • Monitoring ground-feeding birds such as thrushes, blackbirds, robins or pheasants
  • Recording early-morning and twilight activity at feeding areas
  • Observing nocturnal species like owls, woodcock or nightjars without disturbance
  • Checking which birds visit water trays or feeding spots before dawn
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The invisible 940 nm infrared flash is especially important — it won’t startle birds or alter their natural behaviour, making observations more reliable.

A Flexible Setup for Gardens, Woods and Reserves

The Secacam 1 integrates fully with ZEISS mounting and power accessories, allowing birders to adapt it to different habitats:
  • The Vari-Mount system makes it easy to position the camera low to the ground for feeding areas or angled towards logs, woodland rides or scrape edges
  • Solar panels and Power Packs are ideal for long-term monitoring of nest-adjacent areas (where appropriate and ethical) or remote locations
  • Optional metal housings provide protection for cameras left out on reserves or in exposed woodland

This flexibility makes it suitable for everything from garden bird recording to conservation or survey work.

Instant Sightings Straight to Your Phone

Thanks to its built-in LTE module and multi-roaming SIM, the Secacam 1 automatically connects to the strongest available network and sends images directly to the ZEISS Secacam App.

For birdwatchers, this means:
  • Checking activity without repeatedly visiting sensitive areas
  • Monitoring feeding stations or woodland sites remotely
  • Managing multiple cameras across different locations
  • Sharing sightings with birding friends, survey groups or conservation teams

The app’s map view is particularly useful if you’re running more than one camera, helping you track coverage across a site.

Turning Sightings into Insight with Premium features and future updates

There are of course, several optional ZEISS subscriptions that you may find especially valuable. These include:
  • Colourised night images, making species identification easier
  • AI-based animal recognition, useful for quickly sorting large numbers of images
  • The Activity Hub, which builds statistics over time — ideal for spotting seasonal patterns, arrival times, or changes in feeding behaviour

​Over-the-air updates ensure the camera continues to improve without any hands-on maintenance.

Simple, Quick and Birder-Friendly

The Secacam 1 arrives ready to go, with batteries, SIM card and internal storage already installed. Setup through the app takes only minutes, and the built-in test button allows you to fine-tune positioning — particularly helpful when aiming at feeding areas or flight paths.

Images can also be exported via USB-C, making it easy to archive records or contribute data to surveys. It is also robust and secure, with an IP66-rated weatherproof housing, the Secacam 1 is designed to cope with rain, frost and heat — ideal for year-round bird monitoring. GPS-based SecaTrack theft protection adds reassurance for cameras left in public or semi-public spaces.

For anyone wanting to understand when, where and how birds use their garden or local patch — not just who turns up during daylight — the Secacam 1 offers a quietly powerful new way to watch birds when binoculars aren’t enough.

📦 Buy now: www.zeiss.co.uk
🏷 Price: £109.99
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