Websites with live webcams

There is a particular kind of calm that comes from watching a place where nothing is trying to impress you. Websites with live webcams offer that: a bear by a river, a tank of jellyfish, a feeder full of birds, all happening right now somewhere else.

Explore.org Live Cams runs a network of wildlife cameras, from bear cams in Alaska to underwater views, and tuning in to watch animals do very little is the whole point. Monterey Bay Aquarium Live Cams streams jellyfish, a kelp forest and more, though some cameras go dark at night. Cornell Lab Bird Cams covers feeders and nests, and you can sometimes watch chicks hatch. The Giant Panda Cam from the Smithsonian's National Zoo is best in daytime hours. For something with rockets, NASA Live streams launches, spacewalks and ISS views when events are on, so check the schedule.

WindowSwap works a little differently: it is a collection of views from windows shared by real people around the world, each with the sound of its location, rather than a live-camera network.

Live feeds depend on schedules, seasons, daylight and sometimes a camera that simply needs a restart, so you may see "offline" now and then. That is exactly the sort of thing our daily link checks are for.

This is a small category and will grow. If you know a good camera, submit it. In the meantime, the calming websites list has more, or let the button pick a view.