Systems and methods directed to autonomous monitoring by an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) are provided. A system may include a UAV including a camera configured to capture a stream of images of a scene. The system further includes one or more logic devices configured to control an automatic flight of the UAV to capture the stream of images based on a flight mode selected by a user. The one or more logic devices are further configured to detect a monitoring event in the stream of images. The one or more logic devices are further configured to provide a notification to the user based on the detected monitoring event. The UAV may include at least one of the logic devices. Additional systems and related methods are also provided.