NestWatch by the Cornell Lab

Cornell Lab of Ornithology

About this app

NestWatch is the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s citizen-science project that tracks nesting birds in North America. Found a bird’s nest? You can report it for science.
Sign in to:

Add a nest location using the interactive map.
Add data on species, number of eggs, number of young, hatch date, and other pertinent details.
Contribute to North America’s largest database on avian nesting success.

Features:
Full offline functionality, enabling use in places with limited or no Internet connection or cellular service.
Enter bird nest observations from anywhere in North America.
Track your nesting statistics in real time.
Ideal for managing nest box trail data.
Automatically syncs with web version for seamless multi-user and multi-platform support.
Your data are openly available for scientific research, education, and conservation right away.
Learn more about monitoring birds’ nests for science at http://nestwatch.org/.

Ratings and reviews

When using the Android version of NestWatch in the field I often get multiple nest visits, sometimes 2, 3 or 4 instead of the 1 nest visit that truly occurred. I have tried airplane mode; I have uninstalled and reinstalled the app, but neither has provided a solution. Using the clunky app beats having to pack a clipboard, paper and pencil, but it is aggravating to have to check everything over on my MacBook Pro, making all the deletions and adding data that never made it to my desktop.

I love the NestWatch program, and the new design of the app is much more intuitive. It also seems to run more smoothly on my phone. However, it starts up in dark mode each time, which is very hard to read while out in the field. I keep turning dark mode off, but it's back each time I reopen the app. I'd like to be able to set a preference for which mode it defaults to, instead of having to change it every time.

i have used the app for several seasons. While it has always been a little buggy, it is currently almost unusable. when the app first launches it will continually cycle between the main screen with the world map and whatever screen was last in use. This can go on for a minute or more. once it settles down it will behave itself as long as I leave it with primary focus. but if a screen or battery saver kicks in or I minimize the app we're back to infinite switching mode again.

What's new

Behind the scenes upgrades to make your NestWatch experience better!