Successful Publicity for Nest Box Pilot Program

--Kendall Kroesen, Urban Program Manager

Nest boxes

Well over 100 people have expressed an interest in hosting and monitoring an experimental nesting box as part of Tucson Audubon's Nest Boxes for Urban Birds Pilot Project. This is due both to strong interest on the part of Tucson Audubon members and successful outreach to non-members via newspaper and TV. This sort of project ignites the interest of the public and suggests an avenue for Tucson Audubon to attract new members.

Gourds for nests

We had a lot of interest a few weeks ago after a newspaper article appeared about the project. Then Keith Ashley and I appeared on AZ Illustrated, so we expect to get even more calls and emails from people interested in helping. See the short AZ Illustrated segment here!

The goal of the nest box pilot program is to test nest box designs and placements to see if a future, full-fledged nest box program could help support local hole-nesting species. The initial level of interest suggests that it also would be a great teaching and outreach tool.

We have been able to build 37 nest boxes and due to overwhelming interest they are already all spoken for. However, we would like to enroll everyone that is interested in an email list so that we can send them information about how to obtain a nest box elsewhere, how to mount it and how to monitor it to see if it successfully supports one of our target species. Sign up for the nest Box emails here, as well as other Tucson Audubon emails.

Volunteers putting together nest boxes