Ornithologists have taken birdwatching a step further by installing a video camera in the home of a pair of nesting tree swallows. The seemingly oblivious birds at the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology are raising a family in full view of the World Wide Web.

The birds at http://birds.cornell.edu/birdhouse/camframe.html are the most public avian participants in the Cornell Nest Box Network. Thousands of other birds that nest in tree cavities and nest boxes -- including bluebirds, chickadees, kestrels, wrens, swallows and wood ducks -- are under observation by amateur scientists across North America who have joined the National Science Foundation-funded project. Participating bird observers report their findings to the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, where the information is analyzed by scientists and shared with the scientific community and conservation groups, as well as with all participants in the project.

The Nest Box Network citizen scientists are encouraged to follow project instructions and periodically open the doors of their local nest boxes to make observations. But at the Ithaca-based laboratory, the camera operates during daylight hours. Between about 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. EDT the web site provides a new image every 2 to 5 minutes. Highlights of previous activities are archived on the web site, along with tree swallow sounds and information on joining the Cornell Nest Box Network.

Sometimes the picture at Nest-Box Cam is a feathery blur as the tree swallow parents tend their brood, which hatched June 7. But when the adults leave the nest to search for food, anyone with access to the Internet has a clear view of one of Nature's great shows: a brood of tiny birds growing up in a hurry.

"If things stay on schedule, they will be fledging toward the end of June," says Paul Allen, the Cornell ornithologist who installed the camera.

Concerned amateur scientists will be watching the Nest-Box Cam family closely, according to Allen, because some Nest Box Network observers in the Northeast are reporting relatively high nestling mortality in their nest boxes. Tree swallows are aerial feeders and they are particularly hard hit by unseasonably cool weather, which decreases the supply of insects.

"Thanks to all the citizen scientists in the Nest Box Network, we are getting first-hand reports of activities in thousands of nests," says Pixie Senesac, an ornithologist with the project. "Usually, the news is good and birds are doing well. But if something goes wrong, we want to know about that, too."