Bluebirds were a rare sight in Fort Worth. This community group changed that.
Jim Marshall doesn’t consider himself a “serious birder.” But when it comes to nurturing Fort Worth’s bluebird population, there is no one with more experience or knowledge than Marshall, who leads a group of volunteers that monitors about 100 bluebird nest boxes each spring.
Project Bluebird started with five boxes along the Trinity Trails, which Marshall installed in 2007 after spotting a pair of birds near the river. After learning how rare it was for bluebirds to breed in urban areas and consulting with local nonprofit Streams and Valleys, Marshall decided to try his hand at creating more potential homes for the birds to build their nests.
“I did know that they require either a natural cavity in a tree or a man-made box to be able to nest and reproduce,” Marshall said. “I thought, ‘Well, that’s something I can do to help out.’”
That simple mantra has led to substantial growth in Fort Worth’s bluebird population, according to Marshall and his crew of around 20 volunteers. While there is little scientific data kept on the number of eastern bluebirds in the region, Project Bluebird tracks its progress each season through submitting data to NestWatch, a nationwide nest-monitoring database run by researchers at Cornell University.
During nesting season, which lasts from late February to late July, volunteers visit their assigned boxes at least once a week to count the number of eggs, hatchlings and young bluebirds that have left, or fledged, the nest. Locals can see the boxes along the Trinity Trails between Rogers and Bryant Irvin roads as well as at the Fort Worth Botanic Garden, Mount Olivet Cemetery and golf courses in Fort Worth and Arlington.
This year, Project Bluebird monitored at least 76 nesting sites, counted some 211 hatchlings and spotted 176 birds that fledged the nest, according to NestWatch data.
“We think we’re increasing, but of course with all kinds of wildlife, the mortality of the young is quite high,” Marshall said. “But the more young that we give a chance to get into the wild, the more chances we have of survival and increasing the population.”
After knocking on the side of the box to encourage the female to move slightly off the nest, Project Bluebird members often go beyond the basic requirements of counting eggs. Knowing that bluebirds prefer an open area habitat with a few scattered trees, Steve Smith has used loppers to trim branches around his boxes. Others bring mealworms as treats, hoping to endear the birds to their human monitors.
“On a couple of occasions, I’ve had babies fall out and they start scampering around and you have to catch the baby as best you can and put it back in the nest,” said Cindy Compton, who has volunteered with Project Bluebird since 2009.
But fully built nests often don’t lead to picture-perfect endings. On a cloudy morning in July, longtime volunteer Betsy Booth used a mirror to inspect eggs that had been dormant for at least four weeks, well beyond the two weeks it typically takes for bluebird eggs to hatch.
“We know that those are non-viable eggs, they’re not going to hatch if they’ve been there that many weeks,” Booth said. “Something went wrong. I haven’t seen any adult birds, so they’ve abandoned this nest and it’s not going to happen.”
Once eggs have hatched or a nest has been abandoned by adult bluebirds, volunteers will remove nests in preparation for the second or third nest that the birds create each spring. Booth cleared out her boxes for the final time this season, tossing the sticks a short distance away so as not to draw predators to the area.
The COVID-19 pandemic did not deter Marshall and his fellow monitors from caring for the birds, though the group did lose access to some boxes due to the Botanic Garden temporarily closing in March.
“On the other hand, you can see the nature of this activity: It’s something that Steve and Cindy and Betsy and the others can do safely during COVID,” Marshall said. “It’s not a group activity and so they’ve been able to continue.”
Beyond the pandemic, Marshall is somewhat concerned that the rapid development of areas near the trails, including the Clearfork multi-use development, will discourage birds from nesting nearby. But Marshall has high hopes that the work he and the Project Bluebird community have put in over the past 13 years will pay off in keeping more bluebirds in Fort Worth.
“If we were starting this today, we probably would not be getting that many bluebirds,” Marshall said. “It’s pretty amazing that they stayed in this area with this many people. It’s because of what we started back then and what we’re committed to doing in the future.”
This story was originally published August 5, 2020 at 12:38 PM.
