Neighborhood Nestwatch
Neighborhood Nestwatch is a community science and environmental education initiative that helps the public learn about backyard wildlife and wildlife-friendly choices. The National Aviary initiated a new Neighborhood Nestwatch project in 2014, making Pittsburgh just the third city to join this initiative after it was founded in Washington, D.C. by the Smithsonian Institution. Unfortunately, funding for the project lapsed after 2019, but we hope to resume a backyard bird study like it in the future.
Pittsburgh area participants with Neighborhood Nestwatch helped us to track birds of six target species that visited their backyard, and the data they gathered enabled researchers to better understand the impact of urbanization on their survival and nesting success. More than a hundred Pittsburgh area participants tracked and recorded data on their banded birds and provided regular reports to the Smithsonian. Community scientists and the data they helped collect were grouped based on where they were located across this landscape gradient:
- Urban (> 4 buildings per acre, both residential and commercial)
- Suburban (1-4 buildings per acre, mostly single-family residential with large yards)
- Rural (<1 building per acre, within a predominantly agricultural landscape)
- Exurban (<1 building per acre, within a mostly natural, e.g., forested, landscape)
During each Neighborhood Nestwatch season in the spring and summer, National Aviary staff scheduled a visit to each participating home or school within 50 miles of downtown Pittsburgh. They arrived very early in the morning to conduct a general bird count followed by a period of targeted mist netting for the eight focal species in the study: House Wren, Carolina Wren, Carolina or Black-capped Chickadee, Song Sparrow, Northern Cardinal, Gray Catbird, Northern Mockingbird, and American Robin.
During each yearly backyard visit, National Aviary staff caught as many of the target birds as possible. They gently examined each bird in hand to assess and record measurements like wing length, breeding condition, and body weight, which can help scientists learn more about each species. Importantly, they placed a numbered bird band along with a unique combination of additional color leg bands on every bird before releasing it. This enabled the homeowners to recognize each bird for the study and to keep a log of their sightings of them, in the process providing valuable survival data for the researchers to analyze. Participants also monitored nesting activity and nesting success according to a careful protocol devised by the Smithsonian.