Each summer, volunteers for Bird Studies Canada’s Project NestWatch program collect valuable details about bird nests across Canada. Volunteers submit the species name, the nest location, and the dates the nest was observed. We are also interested in the numbers of eggs and young, if those can easily be observed without causing any disturbance, and descriptions of nest sites. This vital information helps researchers learn more about various aspects of bird breeding such as distribution, timing, habitat, clutch size, and productivity.
To sign up for Project NestWatch and report active nests, visit the Bird Studies Canada website. Participants in the Québec, Manitoba, and British Columbia breeding bird atlases may report their observations through the atlas project websites, using the nest record form.
In 2011, volunteers submitted more than 2500 nest records from 186 species. We have also been digitizing historical information, including tens of thousands of contributions from BC, Yukon, and Saskatchewan. As a result of these efforts, the NestWatch database now contains 380,000 nest records.