Whether you’re looking for fluffy baby falcons or just want to see how crowded it is at your favourite beach before you hit the sand, the country’s webcams definitely come in handy. You can even help out migrating fish with one of them.

The Fish Doorbell
The Visdeurbel (“Fish Doorbell’) in Utrecht has fascinated nature lovers and earned headlines around the world since it first went online in the spring of 2021. Viewers can monitor this interactive webcam and press a ‘doorbell’ if they spot any migrating fish waiting at an underwater sluice gate along the city’s Oudegracht canal.

This notifies the lock operator who will open it, but the webcam only works during the spring months when the fish are in the middle of their breeding season.

Baby falcons
Peregrine falcons are considered the fastest animals on the planet, at least once they grow up. Their childhood, meanwhile, mostly consists of slowly waddling back and forth across their nest, waiting for their mother to show up with some tasty pigeon meat or other grub. While the more famous ABN Amro falcon cam has apparently been deactivated, there are several others posted around the country.

Owls
The parishioners at the St. Jans Onthoofding Kerk in Liempde have been helping out barn owls since 1969 when they first installed a nesting box for these endangered birds.

The box is now co-managed by a local nature group and it has a webcam that offers both live footage and images that update every 10 seconds. If you tune in during daylight hours, there’s a good chance you’ll find an owl snoozing away.

Even more feathered friends
Live footage of other birds is available over on Beleef de Lente. This nature website is sponsored by the Vogelbescherming Nederland (the Dutch Bird Protection Society).

Every spring, it contains links to over a dozen webcams monitoring nesting birds around the country.  Along with owls and falcons, you can follow storks, an osprey family and the humble blue tit, and more. Millions of viewers around the world have tuned in since the site first went online back in 2006.

Zoo cams
Big cats are the big stars of a webcam pointed into the outdoor tiger enclosure at DierenPark Amersfoort and at Blijdorp in Rotterdam you can follow elephants, lions, a rhino and okapi.

Seals
The Zeehondencentrum sanctuary in Pieterburen, whose webcam was a massive hit in Japan, is in the process of relocating and won’t be open to the public before 26 April. But you can follow the seals at the Ecomare sanctuary on Texel. The camera overlooks an outdoor pool where the seals can often been seen swimming and frolicking.

The penis cam
This one isn’t what you think, but there’s no telling how many people have clicked on the link expecting something different. The Hortus Botanicus in Leiden breaks out a webcam whenever one of its titan arums is in bloom. Also known as ‘penis plants,’ they tend to attract lots of visitors when they’re doing their thing. The plants only bloom every few years, but here’s a time lapse video of a 2022 bloom.

Beach cams
Several beaches have webcams you can use to check out crowd levels before you leave the house or what the weather is doing. Zandvoort has several that overlook the sea, a local cafe, and more. Noordwijk has two operating at the moment. The webcam at the Boulevard Hotel Scheveningen rotates between the coastline and its namesake. If your favourite beach isn’t here, check out several more on Strandweer, a website that covers news and weather for the country’s coastal communities.

SnowWorld
This chain of indoor ‘snow centres’ caters to wintersport enthusiasts and has locations in both the Netherlands and Belgium. Only two of them have webcams, though. You can virtually hit the slopes of Zoetermeer or find out what the snowboarders are up to in Landgraaf. 

The Port of Rotterdam
The port offers links to several webcams via its website that monitor the main waterways leading in and out of the city. You can keep an eye on what’s happening at the Hoek van Holland, the Erasmus Bridge, and even the lawn in front of the Hotel New York near where humongous cruise ships often dock.

Meanwhile, in Amsterdam
There are several webcams posted around the nation’s capital. Take your pick of a  webcam pointed at Dam Square and another at the Singel Hotel that looks out over the surrounding neighbourhood. This one monitors Amsterdam Centraal Station and here’s a webcam from the Port of Amsterdam where you can watch ferries going back and forth across the IJ.

And finally…windmills
Weirdly enough, there doesn’t seem to be any webcams for the tulip fields. One of the country’s other icons is easy to keep tabs on, at least out in Zaanse Schans. If you don’t feel like making the trip, you can watch its famous windmills and the crowds that love them from afar.