BLUEBIRD BOXES The Eastern Bluebird BLUEBIRD BASICS Cavity

BLUEBIRD BOXES

The Eastern Bluebird:

BLUEBIRD BASICS • Cavity nesters • Perchers- hunt for insects from above • Will eat fruits/nuts in the winter • Eastern bluebirds can be found in Montgomery County year-round

MATING BEHAVIORS TO LOOK FOR 1. Males attract females to their nest by carrying materials in and out of the nest (early March) 2. Pairs mate for several seasons 3. In one season a pair can raise 1 -3 families 4. Look for hatchlings in April and July 5. Hatchlings take 17 -21 days to leave the nest

BLUEBIRD NESTING CYCLE March April Su 3 M Tu W 4 5 6 Nest Construction (2 -6 days) Th F Sa 7 8 9 Eggs laid (5 -7 days) 10 11 12 13 14 15 Incubation (12 -14 days) 16 17 18 19 20 23 24 25 Eggs 26 27 28 29 hatch Raising of young (17 -18 days) 30 31 1 6 2 3 21 4 22 5

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT? • CONSERVATION • Bluebirds are no longer threatened, thanks to the development of bluebird trails and boxes since the 1970 s. It is important to continue this effort

WHAT WILL YOU BE DOING? BLUEBIRD BOXES IN 5 EASY STEPS: 1. Build your bluebird box (with us) 2. Place your bluebird box at your school site 3. Become a certified Nest. Watch monitor 4. Enter your bluebird box as a site on the website 5. Begin monitoring your bluebird box!

WHERE TO PLACE YOUR BLUEBIRD BOX? • Open field or lawn – Scattered trees – Low ground cover – Entrance hole should face open field, preferring east, north, south, and then west-facing directions • Place your box in early March

PROJECT NESTWATCH • A national bird monitoring program designed to track status and trends in the reproductive biology of birds. • Run through Cornell Lab of Ornithology • Brings together separate nest watching activities across the country to create a comprehensive data collection center

YOUR NEST SITE

MONITORING YOUR BLUEBIRD BOX 1. Visit the nest once or twice a week 2. Approach nest; 1. Make presence known 2. Give birds time to leave nest (if they are sitting outside their nest and don’t leave, don’t visit) 3. Open nest and make observations of nest (keep it fast) – Date and time – Nest status – Young status REVIEW THE – Adult status NESTWATCH “CODE – Habitat observations OF CONDUCT” 4. Minimize disturbance to the nest BEFORE DOING ANY OBSERVATIONS!

COLLECTING YOUR DATA

YOUR NEST SITE

ENTERING YOUR DATA

HOW TO EXPLORE DATA • The point of using Nest. Watch is so that the data you collect can be a part of a larger bluebird monitoring program. You have access to the information from other nests across the country through this website.

NESTWATCH MAP ROOM • Shows you the distribution of blue bird nests across the country

NESTWATCH PROJECT WIDE DATA DOWNLOADS • Allows you to download Excel spreadsheets with information on – Species summary: total number of nesting attempts, eggs, nestlings, and fledglings – Reproductive success – Raw Nesting Attempt Data- shows all of the data that has been reported for every nesting attempt submitted

RESOURCES • http: //nestwatch. org/ • http: //www. allaboutbirds. org- bluebird facts • http: //animals. nationalgeographic. com/animals/birding/easternbluebird/- bluebird facts • http: //www. sialis. org/basics. htm- bluebird nesting cycle • Nest. Watch Monitoring Manual (I can email this to you all or you can google it, it is the first link to come up) As always feel free to contact any of us with questions or concerns: Smith Center: 301 -924 -3123 Bill Kraegel: William_Kraegel@mcpsmd. org Jay Handzo: Jay_Handzo@mcpsmd. org Kiri Brenner: Kiri_M_Brenner@mcpsmd. org