FOCB’s Tree Swallow Nest Box Project is in its second year. Over 200 young swallows resulted from the 2024 efforts of FOCB volunteers. Read about this great project.
Tree Swallow Nest Box Project
The UWM researchers who installed the large grids of Tree Swallow nest boxes at the Field Station 35 years ago have retired and moved away from Wisconsin. Last spring FOCB adopted the maintenance of the nest boxes as a long-term project to preserve this housing complex for one of our wonderful native aerial acrobats.
Nest box construction in progress
This year our volunteers worked for 3 hours on March 1 and recorded nests and cleaned all 79 boxes in the two large grids at the Station. They found Trees Swallow nests in 68 (86%) of the boxes; 5 of those looked like incomplete nests. So, inspection of the 2024 nests suggested 63 successful nests and that 80% of the boxes potentially produced Tree Swallow fledglings. With 3 to 4 fledglings from the average Tree Swallow nest, that’s over 200 young swallows produced by the efforts of FOCB volunteers!
We also found 5 Bluebird nests and 5 House Wren nests in the boxes; 78 of our 79 boxes had bird nests. FOCB volunteers are also constructing new nest boxes to replace old boxes that have deteriorated. We have made 27 new boxes and have replaced 12 of the old boxes on the grid; 15 new boxes are in inventory for use in future years.
Come for one of our events this summer and see how our avian tenants are thriving at the Field Station.
Preparing for box cleaning and recording data
Recording a nest and cleaning a box
