Blog

NestWatch Blog Posts

  • Female Brown-headed Cowbird perched in plant
    Stories from the archives: Vivian Pitzrick the “Nest Hunter”

    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 Vivian Pitzrick, a fellow birder, trailblazer, and prolific citizen scientist.

  • Four Sandhill Cranes flying overhead.
    Stories from the archives: Larry Walkinshaw, “Father of Cranes”

    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 Larry Walkinshaw, a fellow birder, conservationist, and prolific citizen scientist.

  • Aerial View of the Mohonk Mountain House
    Stories from the archives: Daniel Smiley of Mohonk, Ecosystem Ecologist

    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.

  • Wildlife at Work

    As companies slowly reopen and work to make their facilities safe for their staff, they can also consider making their properties safer for wildlife. In our new blog post, we highlight some certified wildlife habitats on business campuses as examples of good stewardship which benefit both people and planet.

  • Your Junco Nest Observations Could Help Researchers Impeded by COVID-19

    Nesting season is upon us, and yet researchers studying urban-nesting juncos have found their research halted by stay-at-home ordinances in response to COVID-19. They’re inviting anyone who finds a junco nest (of any subspecies) to please report the details to NestWatch. Together we can help the junco research team continue their studies even as we all stick close to home!

  • A male House Sparrow looks out of his nest box.
    How Are People Managing Invasive Birds At Nest Boxes?

    A new study from NestWatch investigated how many people had experience with non-native birds in their nest boxes. The study explored peoples’ knowledge of House Sparrows and European Starlings, and their attitudes towards managing them, especially if people encountered these non-native birds in their monitored nest boxes.

  • Gulls Just Wanna Have Data

    For seven years, Cornell University students diligently collected nesting data on two species of gulls in Maine. Recently this large data set has come home to roost in our NestWatch database via a generous bulk-upload contribution from Dr. David Bonter.

  • a grassy nest in a wooden box with three blue eggs inside
    How Does Drought Affect Eastern Bluebirds?

    Climate models are predicting drier conditions and more persistent droughts in North America. Thanks to contributions from NestWatchers, scientists were recently able to conduct the first range-wide analysis on the effects of drought on Eastern Bluebird breeding success.

  • Monitoring Birds of Prey in New York City

    In New York City, citizen scientists help urban hawks by contributing nest observations to the raptor nest monitoring project administered by NYC Parks’ Wildlife Unit. By contributing to NestWatch, these volunteers are helping to reduce secondary poisoning of birds of prey.