She’s a new mom. That means sleep-deprived. She has, or will have shortly, a bundle of energy running around demanding her attention. I’d be willing to bet she will be lucky if she can shoot in auto mode during the next 2 years. During that time she may have a few chances to play with settings, but will not have the time and energy to read or watch much instruction. Let her start simple and decide for herself. With a new baby she might prefer to spend half that money on something else. It needs to be HER decision.
Trail cameras can be permanently mounted or moved around. They have a strap to fasten to a tree and a screw-hole for a tripod. You can also buy a steel protective case if you are concerned about it being stolen or vandalized. Read several reviews as different cameras are better for different purposes. They start in the $100 range and go up.
Mount to record birds in all kinds of weather, motion activated???
A trail camera might be easier to do birds. They are motion detector and have night vision with infrared flash. A GoPro has a limited time on, or does time lapse whereas a trail camera can go for days, or until the card gets full. Be prepared for lower resolution on either type.
I find the articulated screen on the d5600 very useful for getting low shots, such as floor level babies. She can always start with auto and then experiment with other settings. Don’t start her off with a lot of explanation. When auto doesn’t give her the results she wants she will figure it out
I can see your point. The part of masking that I find difficult is the painting. My hand isn’t as steady as I’d like, so I need to work at a very large magnification and at large magnification it can be hard to find the exact edge you want to paint to. It becomes a tedious zoom-in and paint, zoom-out and check task. Sometimes I just give up because I have enough pictures that I’m satisfied with that don’t need masking. But then sometimes I want to do something that does need to be masked. So I share your frustration.
I used one of them about 30 years ago on a movie camera. They can be fun to use, but don't get any signs or writings in the picture (mirror image). IQ does suffer a bit!