Across New York state, people have been coming together to saw wood, hammer nails, and peer into boxes. This will be the second year in an ongoing project meant to slow the decline of breeding American Kestrels in New York state by building and monitoring American Kestrel boxes.
Breeding pairs of American Kestrels, North America's smallest falcon, have declined significantly in New York in the past 20 years, in part to effects of habitat loss and competition for nest cavities from other birds, like the non-native European Starling.
With a TogetherGreen Innovation Grant, made possible through an alliance between Toyota and Audubon, Audubon New York, fourteen Audubon chapters, and three of our Nature Centers across the state have partnered along with the New York State Department of Transportation to expand and leverage a massive, dispersed effort to restore American Kestrel populations!
Over 150 kids and adults, through programs with Chapters and Nature Centers have built, installed and monitored kestrel boxes in suitable habitats in their communities. Last year, project participants built more than 190 kestrel nest boxes and installed and monitor 150 nest boxes! Department of Transportation employees are helping in some areas to put up and boxes along highways, and are currently working with us to create informative kiosks for rest stops. In our first year 12 boxes had kestrels and 9 successfully fledged young; this number is relatively low but we expect it to increase as kestrels find our boxes.
In addition to creating places for American Kestrels to nest and breed, this project is increasing public awareness about kestrels and other grassland birds through educational and outreach efforts, coordinated social networking and online communications, and the development of kiosk and other outreach materials for state highway visitor centers. The projects has reached more than 5,000 people through educational and outreach programs and moved 500 people to take action in support of the kestrel. The passage of the Smart Growth Public Infrastructure Policy act this past legislative session was an ideal opportunity to show kestrel project participants how advocating for open space might make a difference for this particular bird, in addition to other grassland species of conservation concern. In addition, our project resulted in Interviews on Martha Stewart, radio stations (NY City and lower Hudson), Mountain Lakes PBS TV station, and newspaper articles, which reached millions.
This year's TogetherGreen funding will help us engage even more New Yorkers in American Kestrel protection and show people that birds are a lot like them - they too need a roof over their heads to support a family and survive!
Download our Kestrel fact sheet to learn more kestrels and this project here. For more information about installing and monitoring kestrel boxes, click here. Download Nest Box Plans from Art Gingert of CT, who has been working with Audubon on kestrels for many years, or check out these plans, from the May/June 2005 issue of Audubon Magazine.
