Watching Nesting Birds

By Blaize Kandler

Blaize Kandler with his nest box.

Dave Kandler

Birds are fun to watch for many reasons. They have brilliant plumage, lovely songs, and interesting behavior. Birds make me happy and full of joy when I watch them.

The photo shows me next to my bluebird nesting box. Although the box was designed for bluebirds, other birds have nested in it too—House Wrens, House Sparrows, and Black-capped Chickadees. People often don’t think about the importance of woodpeckers when it comes to nesting. Each year woodpeckers drill a cavity in a tree, nest in it, and then abandon it, leaving the cavity for other cavity-nesting birds to use. Chickadees, bluebirds, titmice, nuthatches, some ducks, some owls, wrens, Tree Swallows, and many other birds need cavities in trees to nest, reproduce, and thrive.

Besides the box, every year a robin nests under my house’s deck. Every day I’d go outside and watch the incubating robin. There was always a robin on the nest. There are very few places that you can look and always see a bird.

Ten-year-old Blaize Kandler lives in Lakeville, Minnesota.

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