Loudoun Bluebird Monitoring Program

Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy People and Wildlife Living in Harmony

Bluebird Nestbox Monitoring

Citizen Science Environmental Monitoring

“A sense of the power and mystery of nature shall spring up as fully in one’s heart after he has made the circuit of his own field as after returning from a voyage round the world.”

- John Burroughs

Why Monitor Bluebirds?
Monitoring a bluebird nestbox trail is a great way to learn about our local cavity nesters, especially Bluebirds. It’s wonderful to watch them build their nest, lay eggs, and fledge young. In addition to bluebirds we often encounter tree swallows, chickadees, titmice, and wrens. Surrounding habitat is what attracts these birds to nest in the area so it’s also a good chance to evaluate what the property has to offer.

How it Works
You can monitor at one of the public trails or at your own home trail.Or, you can help us build new trails and repair existing ones. Here's a map of the current trails.

- Public Trail: Monitoring at our public trails is done in teams of 4 so that each person monitors about once per month, April though August. Each trail has a trail leader who creates the monitoring schedule, trains new monitors, identifies trail repairs and compiles the data at the end of the season and sends it in.

- Home Trail: Monitoring at your home trail is done by you once per week through the season (April through August). At the end of the season, you compile the data and send it in.

- Nestbox Building/Repairs and Trail Set-up: A great project for local scouts or school groups is to build and set up a bluebird trail and then let us monitor them. We've had a number of scouts earn their Eagle Scout badges using this as a project and it really helps us expand the trail network across Loudoun. We also need help with repairing existing trails that need box replacement.

Let's Help Our Bluebirds!
If you'd like to become involved in bluebird monitoring, please fill in the volunteer form below. All levels of experience are welcome. Training will be provided.

Name:
Email:
Address:
City:
State:
Zip:
Telephone:
Note: All of the above fields are required. We do not share email or address information with any organizations. This is for LWC purposes only so we can contact you if needed.

Select the type of Bluebird Monitoring Support you'd like to do:

Public Trail Yes No
(We'll try our best to assign you to a trail close to where you live)

Home Trail Yes No

Please provide a short description of your Home Trail

How many nestboxes will you be monitoring?

Are the nestboxes on poles?

Do they have stovepipe guards?

Do they have Noel guards?

Nestbox Building/Repairs and Trail Set-up Yes No

Other Comments:

Please identify this picture (helps thwart spammers):

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Stay Connected

Sign on to the LWC Discussion Forum to share sightings, ask questions and connect with others involved with loudoun wildlife activities. We're using Yahoo for this so we are keeping the spammers out.

Resources for Bluebird Monitoring:

Data Collection Forms:

Bluebird Facts and Fun:

Loudoun Trail Data:

[Note: to fill out PDF forms electronically, you may need to update your PDF reader to version 8 (free)]