Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
See the route people take to get to your home
Ring has a number of Video Doorbells within its portfolio, with eight separate options to choose between, all of which offer varying features, and the camera options are plentiful too. You’ll find person and package detection on all the Ring Video Doorbell options, though you will need a Ring Protect Subscription, while other features include things like Bird’s Eye View but these are restricted to certain models of doorbells and cameras.
Bird’s Eye View provides an aerial map view of motion events around your home, allowing you to see the path that people take when they visit. It’s powered by radar technology, and only some Ring Video Doorbell and cameras have this. If you have a compatible model however, this is how you set up Bird’s Eye View on Ring Video Doorbell or camera and how to use it.
What you’ll need
- A compatible Ring Video Doorbell or camera
- Your smartphone or tablet
- The latest version of the Ring app
The short version
- Open the Ring app.
- Tap on your Ring Video Doorbell or camera.
- Select Motion Settings.
- Tap on Bird’s Eye Zones.
- Select ‘Set Up Feature‘ and follow the instructions.
- Choose between Satellite and Vector modes for the map.
- Mark the location of your Ring Doorbell or camera.
- Move the slider to match the green zone to your camera’s field of view.
- Press ‘Edit‘ to refine the Bird’s Eye Zone you have created.
- Test the zone.
- Tap ‘Enable Feature‘ to turn on.
As mentioned, Bird’s Eye View offers an Ariel map view of motion events around your home. It will appear in Live View and when you watch back recordings, allowing you to see each visitor’s path to your Ring device, traced with dots on a map.
Radar technology is used to determine the location of motion events and let you know when something happens in the area you choose. The Bird’s Eye Zones are accurate up to 9.5m and turning the Bird’s Eye Zone feature on will limit radar detection to that range.
Your Ring Video Doorbell or camera will ignore motion outside of your Bird’s Eye Zones once you have set them up. It’s also recommended that you use Camera Motion Zones to draw the areas you want motion detection on your camera view to be detected in order to get better accuracy.
Bird’s Eye View will work on any of the following cameras or doorbells:
Time needed: 5 minutes
- Open the Ring app and head to the Motion Settings tile
First up, you’ll need to open the Ring app on your smartphone or tablet and tap on your compatible Ring camera or doorbell. You will then need to tap on the settings cog in the top right corner and select the Motion Settings tile.
- Select Bird’s Eye Zones from the list
Next up, you’ll want to select Bird’s Eye Zones from the list. If it’s the first time you are setting up the feature, you will need to tap ‘Set Up Feature’, followed by ‘Continue’ a couple of times to get to the main set up page. After this, you will need to find the location of your Ring Doorbell or camera and mark where it is installed.
- Move the slider
Once you have pinpointed the location of your Ring Video Doorbell or camera, you will need to move the slider on the next screen to match the green zone to the camera’s field of view. By default, the zone created will be 6.5m, but you can adjust this up to 9.5m if you want to.
- Edit and test
After you have moved the slider, you will then get a screen showing your Bird’s Eye View. Check it is where you want it and if not, tap ‘Edit’ to adjust. You can also add another zone in the next screen. When you’re finished adjusting, press ‘Done’ in the top right. If you want to switch between satellite and Ariel view, press the small circle next to ‘Done’. When you have finished, press ‘Start Test’ to check everything is working as it should and tap on ‘Confirm’.
- Enable the Bird’s Eye View feature
Last thing you will need to do is enable the Bird’s Eye View feature. Once you have confirmed your zones are doing what you want, tap ‘Enable Feature’. You can toggle Bird’s Eye Zones off afterwards if you would rather not use the feature.
That’s it! Bird’s Eye View should now be set up and you’ll get motion alerts from your Ring Video Doorbell or camera, exactly where you care about.
FAQs
You’ll find Bird’s Eye View in a picture-in-picture image in Live View, as well as in the Event Timeline.
Ring says: “Yellow dots in Bird’s Eye View monitor the current path of your visitor. As each dot gets older, it will gradually grow redder and more transparent before disappearing fully after a few seconds. Yellow dots appear in both live streams as well as in motion recordings on the Event Timeline.
It adds: “Gray dots only appear in live steams, and show where activity was detected before you answered the alert on your phone or tablet. The most recent dot is white, and the entire trail quickly fades away after you’ve entered the Live Stream. For instance, if you open a motion alert after 10 seconds, these gray dots will show where activity was detected for that time before you began live streaming.”
No, the Bird’s Eye View is currently not supported for sharing.
