Caught on Camera

Earlier this spring, Debra Copeland noticed something peculiar about the robin’s nest over her front porch light in St. Thomas, Ontario. Rather than the 4 eggs or so that is usual for a robin, there were a whopping 8 eggs in the nest. She put a video camera up to check on what was going on and discovered that two mother robins had each laid eggs in one nest. She shared the discovery with a backyard bird group on Facebook, where it also caught the interest of national media. What followed was a window into some uncommon robin behaviour. The two mother robins cooperatively raised their two broods, with 5 young successfully making it to fledging while people all over the world watched through periodic social media updates.

Over the past decade, there has been a proliferation of inexpensive and easy to use video surveillance cameras. These include doorbell cameras, dashboard cameras, and security cameras. Usually, these devices are installed to deter crime (though there’s debate around how helpful cameras truly are for this purpose), but this constant mass surveillance means that if something happens anywhere, there’s a good chance it may be caught on video.

In January, home security and doorbell camera footage captured the final moments of many homes consumed by the wildfires in Los Angeles, California. Dashboard cams caught the harrowing moments residents evacuated Hay River, NWT in 2023 because of the wildfires there. Similar footage from wildfires in Nova Scotia and Fort McMurray, Alberta can also be found online. Only a few decades ago, the stories about these types of events would have been a few photos in the newspaper or a few seconds of video on the evening news. Today, we are able to bear witness to these tragedies as they happen.

Sometimes, something never before recorded is captured by these cameras. In March, a security camera at a power facility in Tha Phay Wa, Myanmar caught the moment the Sagaing Fault ruptured during the devastating 7.7 magnitude earthquake that killed thousands. It is believed that this kind of rupture has never been caught on video before and has attracted the attention of geologists who study earthquakes, as it gives an up close view of how the rupture formed and the land moved.

In another first, the sound of a meteorite striking the ground was recorded by a doorbell camera in Prince Edward Island. Homeowner Laura Kelly and her partner returned home to find debris on their walkway, and thought to check the doorbell camera footage for what might have happened. The video showed something hit their entranceway, making a crackling noise. Examination of the fragments by experts at the University of Alberta confirmed that it was a meteorite. Doorbell camera footage can be useful in meteor tracking, as they are stationary. Multiple sightings along with the direction each camera is facing can help track the path of an asteroid, such as one that caused a sonic boom over England in 2021.

When installing a home security camera, it is important to be familiar with any legislation that applies to your area. Ensure your device only covers your property and you aren’t recording somewhere where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy. In terms of online safety, you will want to ensure that any accounts or apps associated with those devices are protected by strong passwords and multifactor authentication. It’s also good practice to put up signs to notify people that you are using video surveillance on your property. You will also want to understand what your rights and responsibilities are if your footage is ever requested by law enforcement.

It’s important to remember that our ability to find these fascinating moments are a side effect of a larger social phenomenon – that we’re now recording everything. In their 1890 essay The Right to Privacy, Louis Brandeis and Samuel Warren presciently said, “Instantaneous photographs and newspaper enterprise have invaded the sacred precincts of private and domestic life; and numerous mechanical devices threaten to make good the prediction that ‘what is whispered in the closet shall be proclaimed from the house-tops.” At the time, they were writing about the intrusion of flash photography on the “right to be let alone.” I wonder if they could even have conceived of the kind of mass surveillance that we now participate in willingly today.

At the same time, it’s hard not to be fascinated by the insight into our world the camera can give us. Like Debra in St. Thomas, I’m watching my own robin’s nest through a security camera, and I’ve used my doorbell camera to watch lightning strikes after a storm. Today, it’s probably harder for me to imagine a world without cameras than it would be for Brandeis and Warren to imagine a world full of them.

Learn more

Scientists gobsmacked by never-seen footage of earth rupturing during Myanmar quake. 2025. Nick Logan. (CBC News) Last accessed 2025/06/25.

'My house exploded in LA Fires and I watched it all happen on my Ring doorbell'. 2025. Liam Buckler. (Mirror) Last accessed 2025/06/25.

Do Video Doorbells Really Prevent Crime? 2023. Rod McCullom and Undark. (Scientific American) Last accessed 2025/06/25.

Meteor captured on doorbell cameras in England. 2021. (BBC) Last accessed 2025/06/25.

Meteorite strike captured in rare video from Canadian home's doorbell camera. 2025. Associated Press. (The Guardian) Last accessed 2025/06/25.

A nesting crunch sees the true story of 'Avian Sister Wives' unfold on St. Thomas, Ont., porch. 2025. Kendra Seguin. (CBC News) Last accessed 2025/06/25.

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