2016 CahowCam LIVE Broadcast

The LIVE CahowCam LiveStream will play above. Please Note: We are broadcasting LIVE HD video from an underground nesting burrow on an island, using custom built cameras, solar power and transmitting via wireless internet under challenging conditions so the video stream may be interrupted  from time to time.  For alternate video please see archived highlights below.

Hello World! March 6th 1:08 am, 2016, Cahow chick hatches with several hundred faithful CahowCam viewers watching! Replay the hatching event and other highlights below in the 2016 CahowCam Highlight Reel. (This is infrared CahowCam footage after processing).

After a very long hatching period, another Cahow, one of the world's rarest seabirds, entered the world at 1.08am Sunday morning March 6th ("dimpling" cracks of the eggshell as the chick started to crack its way out, the first stage of hatching, were first noted at 9.00am on Thursday March 3rd).

The chick, still wet at this point from having just emerged from within the eggshell, will be brooded and occasionally preened gently by the female bird, and in about 4 hours should have dried out and assumed its familiar "grey puffball" appearance.

It is still not completely safe, as a very small percentage of chicks become so exhausted by the hatching process that they succumb within the first hours after entering the world. However, this chick appears to have plenty of energy and so things look very good at this point.

Incidentally, this chick makes the 23rd that I have confirmed having hatched so far in total on all 5 of the tiny nesting colonies by March 6th, including the 4th on Nonsuch.

Thanks to everyone that has shown interest and checked in during this long, long process!

All the best, Jeremy

Jeremy Madeiros Senior Conservation Officer (Terrestrial) Dept. Of Conservation Services BERMUDA

Keep watching and please LIKE / SHARE this page. The week of the hatching, this  page / event maintained 6000+ viewers and served 100,000+  minutes of streaming video!

We began our coverage of the 2016 nesting season by documenting for the first time ever the courting and mating behaviors that took place this past October & November of 2015 (see highlights below). This culminated in the laying of a single egg on January 16th, which should hatch in the beginning of March. Please subscribe to our Newsletter selecting the alert option to receive updates throughout the season.

UPDATE: January 16th 2016  | The LiveStream has recorded the return of the female @ 20:55 (8:55pm)on January 15th in what were at the time stormy conditions and subsequently revealed that she had laid her single egg at 6:15am on January 16th!

UPDATE: January 17th @ 7am | The male Cahow returned during the last few minutes of darkness to releive the female who will most likely head back out to sea tonight.

UPDATE: January 19th @6am | The female Cahow remained in the nest longer then expected and did not depart until just before sunrise. The pair spent the 2 days in the nest together taking turns incubating the egg.

UPDATE: January 28th @ 7.50 pm | The female Cahow returned after 9 days to take over incubation from the male.

UPDATE: January 31st @ 6pm | Both parents are still in the nest having jointly incubated the egg for the past 3 days!

UPDATE: Feruarury 11th @ 3am | There was a very fast handover between the parents which lasted approximately 10 minutes. (see highlight below).

UPDATE: March 3rd | Hatching Alert! - During this mornings health check (see below) "dimples" were seen on the egg which is usually a sign of either the start of the hatching process or egg failure (which it does not appear to be). The hatching process can take up to 48hrs so please stay tuned!

UPDATE: March 4th 7:00 AM the egg has not hatched yet, please keep watching!

UPDATE: March 5th 1:30 AM egg can be seen with hole in it as the chick chips its way out, keep watching!

UPDATE: March 6th 1:08 AM the chick has successfully hatched! See Highlight Reel above!

Archived Highlights 

2015 CahowCam HIGHLIGHTS

UPDATE: June 2105 |  After a very successful nesting season resulting in 57 chicks hatching the Cahows are starting to fledge and head out to sea. During this period we will be beta testing our new custom built multi camera setup with live switching that will be used in our upcoming Nocturnal Expeditions and Educational Broadcasts. For more information or to participate in the tests, please see here.

UPDATE: March 2015  |    The Cahows have arrived back on Nonsuch for the 2015 nesting season and each successful pair has laid a single egg with the first eggs expected to hatch in the beginning of March. 

March 2nd 2015 - Streaming live from #831:  We have installed a new camera in burrow 831 with the egg scheduled to hatch some time in the next 48 hrs. From the activity it appears as if it will be any moment now, keep watching this stream as this will be the first time that this has ever been seen or filmed!

March 4th 2015 - Chick hatched at 1.45 pm: See video highlights below. This is the first time that a Cahow chick has ever been observed hatching and this event was streamed live and seen worldwide via this website!

2015 CahowCam LIVESTREAM.

* Rainbow, the star of our 2015 CahowCam LiveStream fledged successfully on the night of June 5th 2015, the burrow was then promptly occupied by a land crab that spent the next week or so eating / cleaning out the nesting materials. We have now taken the camera offline for possible repositioning in a LongTail nest until it is needed for the next Cahow season that starts with courtships in November. Please signup for our Newsletter for notifications.

Highlights from 2015 Season

Cahow Chick Hatching:  

For the first time ever on March 4th 2015 we observed, filmed and live streamed a Cahow Chick Hatching, this is the second rarest seabird on the planet and a major event to be filming, see video below:

Archived Videos from 2014 Season

This is a rebroadcast of archived the LiveStream video feed of the final day prior to the fledging (departure) of the chick during the night on May 28th 2014, which was streaming 24/7*** directly from burrow #831 on Nonsuch Island.

*** UPDATE   Lightning fledged earlier than expected on the evening of May 28th around 11pm. This has now been confirmed.

We are now repeating the last 24 hours of video captured prior to his (or her) departure (as opposed to showing the currently empty nest). You may also view archived footage, photos and reports from the past few weeks in the BLOG.

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Our custom built cameras and 940nm infrared lights are using solar power provided by Ascendant and wireless internet provided by Logic Communications to stream this footage to the LiveStream servers and onto this page.

The underground burrow is kept in complete darkness and our infrared lighting is completely invisible to the birds. The cameras which are specially designed to be able to "see" this wavelength translate it as the grey / blue as seen above.

Alternatively viewers can browse highlights from this season on our blog.

This project is being supported by the following: