There are some ethical standards when tracking bird nests. Rather than write it all again, or even try to condense it, I’ll just link to the page at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology Nestwatch site. If you aren’t doing it already, consider signing up for Project Nest Watch. Any data at all is appreciated.
I keep from leaving a trail by traveling a circular route around my field and pasture. It’s one of the good reasons I don’t go up in a tree or a structure to look into a nest. I never know who will follow my scent trail up there. (The other reason is my age— 70s—and serious physical limitations.)
Equipment you may want:
- Binoculars are almost a must. You don't need, or maybe even want, extra strong ones, nor even expensive ones. It's far easier to keep track of rapidly moving birds with an 8X or 10X pair. Stronger ones make the things you are focusing on seem to jump around. A spotting scope is fine once you have located a nest, but I've never used one.
- You will want a way of keeping track. You may be happy with a notebook. If you want a visual record, I use two kinds of cameras. I use my big black dSLR for a lot of pictures, but it's just not the right thing for looking into nests from the top. For that, I have an ordinary small P&S. I just crack the top of the nestbox, slip it in and push the button, and leave. I check the picture when I'm away from the nest. A flash is essential; it's dark in those boxes. And you have to be sure your camera can focus that close to the subject.
And that’s about it, for a total investment of less than $15, assuming you already have a camera.
First, I have to find the nests. I start in early spring because that's when most birds start, too. I often use my car as a blind (a hide, for our English readers). I watch for bird movements, especially repeated movements not around the feeders. And I watch for birds carrying nesting material. I wash my pets’ bedding. Then I use all that hair from the dryer lint filter to fill a suet feeder. Orioles especially like this. Then I can follow the birds from there. It’s a good idea to do this when the pets haven’t had a recent application of topical flea control.
Nest Boxes:
I have an awful lot of nest boxes that I've accumulated over the years. Most of them are on a stand, with a baffle to keep climbers (raccoons, snakes) out. Almost all have snake guards around the opening. Those also keep hawks and owls from perching on top of the box and reaching inside. Yes, they will do that. I also have mealworm feeders on the backs of some nest boxes to give bluebirds the idea that this home is for them. You don't have to have nest boxes. You can watch for open nests or birds nesting in natural cavities. Nest boxes just give me the best opportunity for pictures inside, and I love taking pictures.
If you don’t want to invest in nest boxes (good ones are expensive) you can just enjoy the pictures of pretty birds on your way down to the parts about open nests.
I position every one of my nest boxes to face southeast. I’ve read that that’s best practice, so the box will warm in the morning but not bake in the summer afternoon.
Then I need to identify the nests l find. All kinds of birds use these boxes. I’ll show you the common ones I get here in northeast Kansas, and how I can tell who is setting up housekeeping in my boxes, in case I didn’t see any birds moving in. (Sorry about the quality of some of the photos. I lost a lot—thousands! --of pictures in various hard drive transfers and had to make do with what I could find.)
If I see a loose pile of sticks, it means my nest box is under consideration by wrens. The male house wren will select three or four nest cavities and put some sticks into each one. Then he will take the hen on the real estate tour and show her what he’s selected. She will pick one of those for her nest. She’ll probably remove what he’s put in and build the nest her way. Of course, this means that my box may not be the one to make the final cut, but at least it did attract attention so someone did find it acceptable.
Warning: Don’t read this next paragraph if you are very sensitive.
I did have house wrens take up residence in a box at the edge of my pond, in a wooded area. I was out about 6:30 AM one morning, and both parents were very excited and noisy. I thought it was because of me, and I was giving them time to settle down while I adjusted the camera. But the first shot showed, not a baby bird peeking out, but a snake. Snakes do climb trees looking for nests or chicks.
If I see a loose pile of grass, and maybe trash, piled up to the top of the box, it’s house sparrows. I don’t allow them to breed. They will out-compete native birds for nest space. There are a couple of ways to handle this. One is to plug the opening of the nest box. They will then go someplace else, so I do something different. I let them take up their time nesting, and when the eggs are heavy and ready to hatch, I destroy them.
Identifying eggs. If I’ve already scouted the nests, I probably know who is nesting in the boxes. But if I find a nest of eggs, I can tell from those who is calling my box home.
Bluebirds and tree swallows will tolerate a lot of fidgeting around their nests. I don’t abuse that, but sometimes I come more often than to other nests. Bluebirds usually make two nests a year, and rarely will make a third. I usually count five or six eggs per nest.
I try to avoid opening chickadee nests, or even passing too close, as much as possible. They definitely are checked less than Cornell would like because the hen will abandon the nest if she’s upset too often. This surprises me because they’re such trusting little birds at the feeders and can easily be tamed to come to your hand. Not that you should; I don’t think it’s legal and anyway it is interfering with their natural habits. She’s built the nest in a corner of the box. Chickadees make just one nest a year.
Nesting in boxes makes it easy to look into the nest and watch the baby birds develop.
I don’t seem to have captured it in any of these photos, but there is a screening grid under the opening of the bird houses. That lets the little ones climb up. I think it was intended as an aid in fledging since the wood is smoother than natural cavities, but the babies take advantage of it to meet incoming parents bringing food.
Open nests:
You can find brown thrasher nests if you are in an area where they hang out by listening for their
very noisy scolding. They will really tell me off if I’m close to a nest—and their idea of close is a lot farther away than you might think. If they’re making a fuss, look for a thorny bush. I’d always heard that they liked to nest in thorn bushes. On my farm they have always been in the weedy multiflora rose bushes, those invasive pests that farmers and ranchers hate for good reason.
The nests I have found were like a robin nest, but larger and a little deeper, with more mud and no grass lining. The eggs looked a lot like the speckled wren eggs above. The chicks were bigger than the chicks I see in boxes, which isn’t surprising since the thrashers are a pretty good size, too. The nests have been three to five feet from the ground, so easy to see inside. But these chicks will be quick to try to fledge if I disturb them once they have pin feathers so I keep my distance.
This red tailed hawk was pretty indignant that I was out in my pasture as it was picking up nest
material. It kept screaming at me and swooping down over my head. They usually ignore me but seemed to take this as a threat to the nest. The hawk nest is in a large tree near the back corner of the field. They used it for several years before moving on, like the Dekorah eagles do.
The nest is pretty high up, so I’ve never even attempted to see what’s in it. I do see the hawks
carrying food in, and I see the juvenile hawks peeking over the edge once they are old enough. The nest is very large, so I didn’t have to count on following the hawk to find where it was taking the nesting grass it had. I couldn’t miss this. These are very visible, so look for them if you have hawks in your area.
I lost many, many pictures in transferring from one computer to another, over the years. These are some of the ones I recovered as screen captures from weekly newsletters I used to send my grandson, so the quality is less than ideal and the pictures are small. Sorry about that.
.
This is a Baltimore oriole nest. It’s a pear or teardrop shape, woven tightly with an opening in the front. I found one on the ground once, and I could just fit my fist inside the opening. Since it’s hanging way out on a twig, it’s pretty safe from a lot of predators. I do get orchard orioles but I’ve never found one of their nests. This one is probably lined with that pet hair that I put out. Orioles seem to collect a lot of it.
House finches nest under the eaves of my house, where the downspout folds back under and makes a sheltered spot with good support. This nest is deeper than a lot of cup nests, and the bottom (on the left side of the picture) went down the sides and under the downspout to anchor it well. It was more than 15 feet from the ground, so I didn’t even think of using a ladder to see inside. It was beside my bedroom window, though, and the wall is covered with Virginia creeper, so I could see the parents come and go. And I could watch the babies as they fledged just a few inches into the vines.
Robins can nest high in trees, but they can also nest four feet from the ground, in bushes or vines on the fences. The nest has a twig and mud base, and the grass lining can pretty much be lifted out as a separate piece.
I found this one late in the fall, long past its time of use, so I didn’t get to see how they built it or how it was used. It was in a scrub tree about 4 ½ feet from the ground. Goldfinches nest late in the year. The theory is that they nest when thistle and sunflower seed is plentiful, but I’ve heard that that has become problematic. Climate change is spreading the time between the seeds (earlier than in the past) and nesting, which is instinct driven.
I know when eggs have hatched in the boxes because the parents carry out the empty shells. They also will carry what looks like tiny, tiny white balloons. Those are fecal sacs. Baby bird poo comes encapsulated for easy disposal. Either the adults get tired of this or the leavings change, because when they leave the nest, they leave this mess. The first bluebird clutch fledges with the ripening of mulberries, so they leave big purple splotches behind. It’s good practice to clean this mess up, but that dust is unpleasant and sometimes dangerous to breathe so I wear a mask and use gloves. I pull the nests out on those wire platforms that I was told I needed and dump them right into a plastic bag. Then I use a putty knife to scrape down the inside of the nest box. Often, birds will shelter in these boxes in the winter so it’s necessary to clean them. The next spring, I am always sure to check the boxes for resident spiders and wasp nests.
House wrens and house sparrows both will kill little birds in their nests. For the wrens, they will attack nests they feel are too close to theirs and that’s part of our natural cycle. House sparrows will kill chicks to take over a nest. Then they build their own nest right on top of the babies. That nest will attract ants, lots of ants, for years. I try to take those boxes down and soak them in bleach water for days but if I still see a trail of ants, I will prop the box open so it isn’t used and leave it for a few years. I sat on my deck one summer evening and watched house sparrows kill two chickadee families to claim the nest boxes, so I really have little compunction about destroying their nests.
Please, please add any pictures you have of nests or eggs, or nestlings if that’s what you have.
And tell us what’s going on in your birding world now.