The use of trail cameras to monitor species inhabiting artificial nest boxes

Abstract

Artificial boxes are commonly used in studies of cavity‐dwelling animals of various taxa. One advantage of nest boxes is that cameras can be used to monitor animals inside the cavity, however, most cameras used today have to be built de novo or modified or are expensive. Here, we describe a method for monitoring nest boxes using off‐the‐shelf models of trail cameras that can record photographs and videos in daylight and darkness (TCM; Trail Camera Method). The cameras can record sequentially within a given time lapse or an infra‐red motion sensor can be triggered by activity in the nest box. Using TCM in a Great Tit (Parus major) nest box population, we studied the hourly pattern of the first egg laying and the first egg hatching. We found that Great Tits laid eggs within 2 h of the sunrise while the timing of hatching spanned the 24‐h day. Moreover, we found that the hour of hatching affects the nestlings’ mass on the 2nd day of life, but not on the 12th day of life. Comparing to traditional nest box checks, TMC requires about 75% less time to obtain data on the timing of egg laying and hatching. Moreover, the hour estimation error was several orders of magnitude greater with the traditional method. Our data demonstrate that commercially available trail cameras are an affordable and convenient method of monitoring artificial cavities. Trail cameras are small, standalone, weather‐proof devices with integrated powering, memory storage, lighting, and recording systems. They could be easily swapped between boxes or removed. After small modifications of the box, they could be used to monitor a wide variety of behaviors of many animal taxa.

Effect of light intensity in the nest site on eggshell pigmentation in a hole-nesting passerine

“…However, the use of artificial cavities has a number of advantages over natural hollows, which are scarce in most managed forests. They provide unobstructed and quick access to the nest and eggs, the possibility to monitor broods 45 , and to manipulate physical factors, e.g., light or temperature 46 . Another limitation of our study is that it was performed during only one season.…”

“…By using shutters, we could make the boxes bright (with open shutters) or dark (with closed shutters). For more detailed information on the nest box construction, see 45 . In total, we analysed data from 14 dark and 18 bright nest boxes.…”

“…From the beginning of March, nest boxes were regularly monitored every 3–5 days. Trail cameras were placed in the nest boxes to determine the date of the first laid egg and the clutch size 45 .…”

Predator-Proofing Avian Nestboxes: A Review of Interventions, Opportunities, and Challenges

“…The authors also suggested that predator detection was likely underestimated, especially for partial predation or events involving small predators such as European weasels, which were less likely to trigger motion sensors on camera traps. These issues are common when quantifying avian nest predation [89][90][91].…”

The Use of Nest Boxes in Malaysia: Design and the Potential for Research and In-situ Conservation of Birds

“…A few studies have supplemented details on nest box dimensions (Arct et al, 2022;Cooper & Bonter, 2008;Maziarz et al, 2017;Zhang et al, 2021) and illustrations (Olah et al, 2014;Pasuwan et al, 2011;Stanback, 2020;Wimberger et al, 2017) as reference for future studies of species. While most nest boxes were built with a single chamber, some studies may include additional chambers apart from the nest chamber to place monitoring equipment [e.g., camera surveillance system or camera traps; see Surmacki and Podkowa (2022) and Zárybnická et al (2016)]. Most nest boxes were constructed from wood material (Arct et al, 2022;Miller, 2002;Palko et al, 2011;Zhang et al, 2021), while others were from other non-wood materials (Beasley & Parrish, 2009;Olah et al, 2014).…”