PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
In the last few years, Yolo Audubon and its volunteers have recognized the importance of nest boxes to aid cavity-nesting species by placing and monitoring nest boxes at the Woodland Regional Park, as well as along the North Davis Channel (aka North Davis Ditch). Alison Ke, a UC Davis graduate student, will share highlights on three different projects she has been involved with during her PhD studies that are related to nest boxes. Nest boxes are a tool that can be used to conserve and research cavity-nesting birds. Farmers also use nest boxes to attract certain bird species to control rodent and insect pests. Alison will talk about a local conservation project that she started in collaboration with the UC Davis Museum of Fish and Wildlife and the City of Davis where nest boxes were used to help conserve Western Bluebirds and Tree Swallows in Davis, CA. High levels of nest box use and success occurred, which increased over the four years that she monitored the boxes. Next, Alison will present a research project that she conducted in Northwest Ecuador to understand if land conversion from tropical forest to pastures leads to a limitation of nesting habitat for cavity-nesting birds. While nest boxes are commonly used in temperate areas, little is known about how effective they are in the tropics. Nest boxes were experimentally added to forests and pastures to measure how often birds used the nest boxes, and if they could be a successful conservation strategy for certain species. Finally, Alison will present a collaborative project from her lab (the Karp lab at UC Davis). They used a citizen science dataset of 317,147 nests of 287 species over 24 years, and 92,896 unique locations across the continental U.S. to understand how habitat conversion to agriculture and climate change affect avian nest success. Many of these observations took place in nest boxes, and it was found that birds nesting in cavities or nest boxes responded differently to habitat and climate than birds using open-cup nests.
SPEAKER BIO
Alison Ke is finishing up her Ph.D. in the Graduate Group in Ecology at the University of California, Davis. She received a B.A. in statistics and a B.S. in forestry and natural resources from the University of California, Berkeley in 2017. Alison’s research focuses on how converting forest to agriculture affects bird abundance, behavior, and reproduction in Central and South America. For her graduate work she conducted field research in Costa Rica, Colombia, and Ecuador. She currently lives in Boulder, CO and is passionate about bird conservation and rock climbing.
This event is free, and you do not need to be a member of Yolo Audubon. If you would like to join click here. If you only want to receive the monthly newsletter, click here.
DETAILS ON JOINING THIS ZOOM MEETING
You must register (no cost) in advance for this meeting. An account with Zoom is NOT necessary to join a meeting. Zoom limits the number of participants to 100. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. Registrants will receive email updates about this online event, as well as periodic email updates about Yolo Audubon’s conservation work and how you can help birds. (you can unsubscribe at any time.)
During the presentation, you will be able to ask questions via Zoom’s chat feature for the Q&A afterwards.
Please note: Participants must have the Zoom desktop client downloaded on their computer or on their Apple or Android mobile phone or tablet to access the meeting.
Visit to learn how to join a Zoom meeting. You may email Yolo Audubon Program Chair Ken Ealy before the meeting if you need assistance.