Iowa is about to become a serious tourist trap...well at least for birds. The state sits in the middle of the Mississippi flyway, a route used by more than 100 million birds to migrate each season. Iowa’s grasslands, forests, and water bodies support a huge boom of insects and plants in the spring and summer that provide plenty of food for nestlings and their parents. Yet, today the total area of developed land and cropland in Iowa is roughly 6 times greater than that of its natural areas, removing most of the resources that nesting birds depend on.
Building nest boxes for birds can help make a difference for migrating and nesting birds, by providing an alternative to a traditional nest, and believe it or not winter is a great time to put up a box.
Join Bur Oak Land Trust’s Conservation Education Specialist, Darcey Gans as she teaches us how to choose, build, and maintain a nest box. Learn how you can use your nest box to help scientists' track and study birds by contributing to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s NestWatch program.