Print

Duval County's "Mister Bluebird"

202105 Ken Godwin Duffy Kopriva Emil Kotik 201911 IMG 0016First, let me say that I will miss my good friend at Audubon, Emil Kotik. He helped me by building nest boxes for my bluebird trail.

I’m Ken Godwin, and I first learned of bluebirds’ plight when I worked on a multi-state AT&T bluebird conservation project in 1982, but I was personally trained by Duval Audubon Society's Mildred Dixon (also a member of the North American Bluebird Society) in the late 1980s. Since then I’ve built over a thousand bluebird nesting boxes over the years. I gave hundreds in the late 80’s to Southern Bell “Pioneer” employees with homes in rural communities around Jacksonville like Callahan, Bryson City, Keystone, MacClenny, and Middleburg. By using my large trail in Dunwoody, GA, that began in 1996 along a high-tension power line corridor, experimentation spreading into the neighborhoods taught me that bluebirds will accept nest boxes in suburban residential settings.

Therefore, when I returned to Jacksonville in 2011, I launched a “census” to determine if bluebirds were seeking nesting cavities in the Jacksonville suburbs. I placed a box or two in or near green spaces ("oases" surrounded by suburban residential development) such as campuses, parks, highway clover-leafs, power line corridors, cemeteries, etc., and eventually, residential homes. I added 50 to 80 boxes each year, until the trail plateaued in 2020 at 450 boxes, covering much of the county within the I-295 beltway, and a bit beyond.

202105 Mister Bluebird baby and eggsThe census showed me where bluebirds were, and by adding boxes to green spaces with an already occupied box, clusters formed. The census evolved into suburban bluebird clusters that I call “nurseries." Currently, occupancy is steady at 30%, generating 800 (+/- 100) fledglings each season. Encouragingly, some nursery clusters have achieved “saturation” (i.e., all boxes are in use, with no “spares”). These clusters are Ringhaver Park, Florida Baptist Children's Home, Ft. Caroline Middle School/Elementary, Venitia Elementary, Dunn Avenue’s Elementary/Middle School/athletic park, Wolfson High School, and Moncrief’s Miller Park. Some clusters are residential neighborhoods near green space oases such the San Jose Golf Club. And, as you may know, former Duval Audubon Society board member Brett Moyer at The Bolles School has similar projects at their campuses. (Also of note is the Northside Bluebird Trail, maintained for the last twenty years by dedicated Duval Audubon Society volunteer Laura Johannsen with help from volunteer Charlene West.)

I could use some help. But the most welcome help would be in the form of word-of-mouth advertising: chatter encouraging friends, neighbors, churches, scouts, PTAs, and HOAs** to add a cavity-nester nest box to their yard landscape, and monitor the box to:

  1. Discourage/evict invasive and predatory English House Sparrows.
  2. Engage in Citizen Science by recording their box and its nesting activity at NestWatch.org. The accumulation of data at Cornell’s NestWatch site helps ornithology, but its MapRoom report helps us direct folks to where we know cavity nesting species are thriving. The knowledge that bluebirds are near encourages prospective enthusiasts to deploy a box of their own.
  3. Consult NestWatch.org/Explore Data/MapRoom, then select Eastern Bluebird - Sialia sialis and 2021 to find where folks are reporting reproductive success among bluebirds near you.
  4. If issues arise, consult Sialis.org; NestWatch.org; Florida Bluebird Society; or the Facebook Group Eastern Bluebird Landlords.

** I can be engaged to speak or “Zoom-speak” for groups or organizations. Contact me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and make sure to include the word Bluebirds in the subject line.

~ Ken Godwin, Guest Contributor