Volunteers needed for the 2024 Season!

2023 Bluebird Project volunteer recruitment is full. 

All volunteers are required to attend 4 hours of training to ensure they are conducting themselves with NestWatch’s Code of Conduct as well as ensuring proper monitoring technique and data collection for this citizen-science based volunteer project. 

Volunteers of all ages are recruited in February to assist with monitoring the nest boxes from April through August. Volunteers will visit the boxes on a rotating basis once every two or three weeks to collect important nesting data. Additionally, volunteers help with the maintenance and repair of older nest boxes.

Volunteers are required to attend both the Open House and Monitor Training to learn project background, species identification, monitoring tips and instructions for entering monitoring data to NestWatch, the online nationwide nest-monitoring program and database maintained by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Wondering what to expect as a volunteer? Check out a slideshow (PDF) featuring photos provided by our volunteers from the past season. For information on volunteering in 2024, contact us at 303-814-7456 or email Marcy Jones.

Improving bluebird populations

The Colorado Bluebird Project operates under the guidance of Denver Audubon and is offered through POST Partners in Castle Rock. This volunteer-run project aims to improve the vitality of bluebird populations throughout Colorado and to inform and educate the public about bluebirds. For more information, see the project overview sheet (PDF).

For the past 15 years, with the help of hundreds of volunteers and students from several Castle Rock schools, we have watched and carefully monitored thousands of nests from native cavity-nesting birds such as bluebirds, swallows, wrens and chickadees in nest boxes established all over Town. We have documented over 7,000 chicks fledge from these boxes since 2007. Each year, the monitoring efforts and data collected by volunteers are assembled into a summary presentation (PDF) that features highlights from the year, overall project data and quotes from the volunteers.