Wildlife Habitat Council- Nest Monitoring

Web site support provided by:

Nest Monitoring

Corporate Campaign for Migratory Bird Conservation
Imagine a day when natural areas throughout the Western Hemisphere are linked – crisscrossing the land to form wild corridors for our migratory birds and other creatures.

Saturn Spring Hill Bluebird
Photo by John Hatcher

General Motors Corporation’s employees at the Saturn Spring Hill site in Tennessee built a bluebird habitat complete with fence rows and slant-roofed bird houses.

Then, the eastern bluebird (Sialia sialis) population took off! This migratory species prefers open land with trees, fences or artificial nesting structures that provide perching, nesting and feeding resources.

"The bluebird carries the sky on his back."
Henry David Thoreau

The Wildlife Habitat Council is committed to the creation, conservation, and enhancement of nesting habitat for songbirds, waterfowl, shorebirds, raptors and migratory birds on corporate lands.

WHC's Wildlife at Work program has led to a significant increase of available woodland, grassland and wetland nesting habitat for native birds on corporate sites. Since 1991, the Wildlife Habitat Council has documented the fledging of thousands of native birds of over 100 different species, several of which are federally endangered and many more whose populations have been in decline.

Chevron Cincinnati Facility
A male tree swallow is spotted at the ChevronTexaco Cincinnati Facility in Hooven, Ohio. Photo by Tony Pace

For those of you that have installed nest boxes, we would like to remind you to clean out your boxes, replace damaged or fallen nest sites, hone up on your identification skills and prepare your schedule for monitoring during this nesting season. Nests should be monitored once a week during the breeding season.

Nest monitoring is very rewarding and extremely successful, as well as a fun and educational way to observe and document the entire nesting process. If you are having trouble finding the time to monitor boxes this year, consider engaging a local Scout group or another civic organization to assist in collecting data.

Member sites have erected thousands of artificial nesting structures to provide habitat that is key to the survival of many species. Employees and community volunteers monitor nest boxes to document the nesting cycle and number of fledglings, in order to measure reproductive success.

Nest monitoring increases the local populations of native birds by providing nesting habitat, protective cover, water and food resources. Through the attention employee volunteers provide by monitoring boxes on corporate sites, significant accomplishments are achieved.

Nest Monitoring projects:

are inexpensive to implement and monitor;
attract employee and volunteer groups to the wildlife program;
are excellent educational tools for school and civic groups;
help increase biodiversity on corporate land;
show significant results; and
improve employee morale.

For submitting data on from ongoing Nest Monitoring programs, there are some excellant organizations that we recommend from our list of partners in the Directory of Resources. Programs, such as the annual Christmas Bird Count and Great Backyard Bird Count, engage bird watchers of all levels in counting birds and reporting their results to create a snapshot of the numbers, kinds and distribution of birds across the continent.