Where to Place Your Trail Camera for Better Wildlife Photos

Wondering the best place to put your new trail camera? A hunter and trail cam enthusiast shares tips on how to position yours for better, more consistent wildlife photos.

On Friday afternoons, several of us from the neighborhood gather to discuss the events of the week. Since we have a lot of wildlife in the area, often the conversation shifts to animal sightings and trail camera activity.

After a couple of us rattled off the range of critters on our cameras, one neighbor commented that he was getting none of those photos at his house. Better yet, he lived halfway between the two of us who were getting the most photos. After a couple of questions, we realized it was probably due to camera placement.

The simple truth is that you will get more wildlife photos if you place your camera where the animals travel. With just a little investigating, you can often figure this out before you hang your camera.

Get To Know Animal Travel Patterns Before You Place Your Trailcam

In my case, my cabin is surrounded by hardwood timber and thickets of rhododendron and mountain laurels. This creates a fairly dense forest, so scrambling around looking for animal tracks isn’t the optimal approach for me. Still, the trails are fairly evident.

For instance, where the deer travel, they usually browse. Openings in the woods often are kept clear by the deer. And where the deer travel, other animals likely follow.

If the ground is soft around your house, you can usually see tracks and tell the routes animals use. Smaller animal tracks may be harder to spot and may require a different approach. Other animals are also more elusive.

One prime time for understanding travel patterns is after a snow. A good snow will expose all the tracks until it thaws and refreezes; after that, the smaller creatures might not leave a mark.

This setup was perfect for the larger animals since they often walk through these openings. Bears and deer regularly used these paths. Interestingly, I found that some of the predators chose to stay in cover.

For instance, after looking at years of photos, I learned that bobcats in particular tended to stay in cover and cross the openings quickly. In fact, the first bobcat photo I got was when I moved a camera to look under the rhododendrons rather than at the trail. The bobcat was slinking through under cover at night and walked just in front of the camera.

Coyotes, to some degree, stick to cover, though I occasionally get them moving along in the open. This may be because they are mostly on the move at night.

Learn more in: Tips for Identifying Animals that Pass in the Night

Importance of Lighting for Trail Cams

Another factor that affects trail-camera positioning is lighting. This is not a problem for night photos, but keep in mind that when the sun shines into your camera, it essentially blinds it. So, a camera facing east is blinded in the morning, and likewise, a camera facing west is blinded in the afternoon and evening. If possible, aim your camera north for daytime photos; second best is south. That’s because in the winter, a south-facing camera looks into the sun most of the day.

Also, a camera positioned in a well-lit area looking into the shade tends to black out the darker area. If your interest is in the shaded area, it’s better to set the camera there so the lighting is the same throughout the camera’s view.

Make Use of Attractors

Wildlife is attracted by various things. For instance, if you feed birds, animals will come in to feed on the residual seed even if you take your feeders in at night.

Some of these will be smaller animals like mice and chipmunks that slip out at night to feed, but these can become food for the predators. Aiming a trail camera at a bird feeder will capture a lot of animals that aren’t birds and don’t even eat birdseed. They simply are following the trails of the smaller prey.

You might also have other activities that attract animals. For instance, I once cleaned some fish at my cabin, and curious about what that might attract, aimed a camera at this spot for the night. Before midnight, a fox had followed the smell. Next came a coyote, and after it came a pair of raccoons. Hours later, the fox returned for one last look.

If you have a creek or pond on your property, this is also a good place for a camera. A wide variety of animals will come to the water, and the mud along the edges will give you an idea where to place the camera.

Related reading: Reading Nature's Newspaper: How To Spot Evidence of Wildlife On Your Land

Keep a Spare Trail Camera

Just for curiosity’s sake, I also keep a spare camera I can move around when I see clues of animal traffic. For instance, I suspected large animals of walking along the back wall of my cabin based on the opening in the rhododendrons they maintained. Placing a camera to watch that opening confirmed my suspicion when I captured numerous photos of deer using that trail.

The range of critters captured on my trail cameras over the last few years has been extensive. Bears, deer, coyotes, bobcats, raccoons, possums, armadillos, rabbits, skunks and a wide variety of birds have all come by my cabin. If I had not had trail cameras out keeping an eye on them, I might have never known. And more specifically, if I had not had the trail camera pointed at the best spot, even these visitors would have been unnoticed.

It takes a little detective work to figure out what animals are crossing below my cabin, but that’s the fun part. Each weekly download of the cameras provides a few more clues. And I suspect you will be surprised once you investigate around your house as well.