Nest-box monitors contribute new information on "Most Wanted" birds

Eastern Bluebird by Fred Deitrich

The Birdhouse Network engages bird enthusiasts in putting up nest boxes for cavity-nesting birds and monitoring the birds' success in raising their young.

More than 90 percent of submitted reports involve nest attempts by 10 bird species (Eastern Bluebird, Tree Swallow, House Wren, Western Bluebird, Mountain Bluebird, House Sparrow, Carolina Chickadee, Black-capped Chickadee, Ash-throated Flycatcher, and Violet-green Swallow).

In 2001, we created a list of 16 "Most Wanted" birds to bring attention to species with less than 50 nest attempts in our database. Were these birds underrepresented because people didn't know they used nest boxes? Were they difficult to attract? Or were they truly in decline across their range?

American Kestrel by Donald Metzner

Armed with natural history information and tips to encourage nesting, nest monitors have been very successful at attracting many of these species to nest boxes. American Kestrels, Purple Martins, Prothonotary Warblers, and Bewick's Wren are among the most notable species whose numbers in our database are each approaching 500 nest attempts.

Other Most Wanted species are Mountain Chickadee, Chestnut-backed Chickadee, Oak Titmouse, White-breasted Nuthatch, Great Crested Flycatcher, Brown-headed Nuthatch, Hooded Merganser, Pygmy Nuthatch, Boreal Chickadee, and Western Screech-Owl.

—Tina Phillips, project leader

For permission to reprint all or part of this article, please contact Laura Erickson, editor, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, 159 Sapsucker Woods Rd., Ithaca, NY, 14850. Phone: (607) 254-1114. email: lle24@cornell.edu