Best webcam or what...?

[Melissa2012B]

I have pet birds and would like to get some video of them sitting on my arm or shoulder while I'm in front of the PC, spontaneously, so they don't get nervous and stop doing the cute stuff they do, like talking. One example is my young cockatiel Tiki. If he's on my shoulder and I crinkle a wrapped granola bar's outside wrapper in front of him, he makes crinkly sounds. It's amazing! My big umbrella cockatoo will dance if I play music.

I'm not sure if a webcam is the best solution for this, as the video is usually pretty crummy and they don't have optical zoom. But I'd like something I could hook up to the USB port, put next to my monitor and control with the mouse and keyboard, which has great HD picture/video quality and optical zoom.

And of course not so expensive.

So would a webcam be the best choice, or...?