Making Bird Nests

Manmade Nests Help a Variety of Birds

Birds ranging from bald eagles to bluebirds benefit

Wildlife biologists are seeing a few more bald eagle nests in northern Utah every year. These nests were likely built by the offspring of eagles that nested on a manmade nest in the same area sometime in the past. Once these eaglets grew into adults, they returned to the area to build their own nests.

Utah*s first artificial nest platform for bald eagles was erected on the south shore of the Great Salt Lake in 1997. Since that time, a pair of eagles has returned to the nest and successfully reared nearly 30 young eagles.

Nesting Habits

Artificial nests have played an important role in wildlife conservation in Utah. In some cases, they*ve actually helped reverse population declines.

*When it*s time to nest, many birds return to the same area, and sometimes even the same nest site, where they were raised,* says Jim Parrish, nongame avian coordinator for the Division of Wildlife Resources. *If their nest isn*t there anymore, the birds will often leave the area and try and nest someplace else.

*Manmade nests provide a wonderful way for us to try and reestablish birds in areas where they once lived, increase the number of birds in a given area or introduce birds to a new area.*

Perhaps the most noteworthy example of reversing a population decline is the role nesting or *hack* towers played in the comeback of the peregrine falcon. Utah was the first state west of the Mississippi River to use hack towers to help peregrines.

Helping Ducks and Geese

The Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Area west of Farmington is one of several places in Utah where extensive artificial nest work has been done.

Late each winter, members of the Utah Airboater*s Association gather at the WMA to rebuild and refurbish nest platforms for Canada geese.
Two years ago, volunteers from the Utah Waterfowler*s Association and Delta Waterfowl joined forces with the airboaters to add nest boxes for ducks.

Karl Taylor of Ogden has been the driving force behind the duck nest box project. *This project has given me an opportunity to put more and more back into the system,* Taylor says. *My passion in all of this is to see the kids come out. Those are the same guys that will be out here 10 to 20 years from now, putting on the same thing that we*re doing today.*

Almost 100 volunteers came to the Farmington Bay WMA in late February to work on the nest boxes and the platforms that hold them in place.
Among them was Eagle Scout candidate Kohle Perks.

*A lot of people are going to watch these nests and see the progress of the ducks that use them,* Perks said as he put the finishing touches on securing one of the 10 duck boxes that he constructed for his Eagle Scout project.