Blog

Our Nest Quest Go! project is bringing the Lab’s historic nest record cards out of the filing cabinet and into the digital era. While digitizing bird nesting data is our primary goal, we also want to highlight the stories of remarkable people like Daniel Smiley, a fellow birder, naturalist, and prolific citizen scientist.

Researchers examined long-term demographic data from NestWatch to understand the degree to which certain species and populations might be correlated in their reproductive success. They used 21 years of NestWatch data and found little synchronization between Eastern Bluebirds and Carolina Chickadees, a result that might indicate these populations are resilient to environmental challenges.

When a husband-and-wife team in the real estate business set out to build a Barred Owl nest box, they hoped their listing would please the local owls that were heard calling around their new property. In time, it did, but they had to put in some sweat equity to make it happen. Read our new blog post about their journey and the lessons learned. This box will be the envy of the neighborhood!

A new study of nest box design suggests that bluebird enthusiasts should choose round entrance holes over “slot-style” nest boxes. Find out why this design decision made a difference to Mountain Bluebirds in British Columbia.

The Xalapa Wildlife Conservation Management Unit in Veracruz, Mexico, works to boost populations of Mottled Owls in urban green spaces. They are piloting a first-of-its-kind nest box program to help the owls find safe nesting spots in cities.

In July 2022, Ohio lost a longtime champion of conservation. Mr. Dick Tuttle had been building, maintaining, and monitoring nest boxes for five decades in his community. Upon his death, friends rallied to digitize his nest box data and preserve his 53 years of nest records in perpetuity for NestWatch. This blog post honors his conservation legacy.

When it comes to predators near the nest, do birds leave after just one observation? A recent study suggests that simply observing a predator at the nest box one time is not likely to cause abandonment.

It took just four years to answer the decades-old question of “Are predator guards on nest boxes actually helpful?” With the power of citizen science, NestWatchers helped us use the best science available in a national study of cavity-nesting birds.

On a farm in Ohio, middle school students are learning about bluebirds and other cavity-nesting birds by monitoring nests for NestWatch. Kate Anderson told us how Operation Bluebird got its start, and offers a model that other land trusts and conservation organizations can use to introduce youth to birds and citizen science.