The widespread continental decline of migratory, cavity-nesting birds due to the various consequences of anthropogenic activities, is of great concern to conservation. Located in central Alberta, breeding-grounds of hundreds of migratory birds, Ellis Bird Farm is a non-profit organization that has been invested in the conservation of migratory, cavity-nesting birds for over 4 decades, through the deployment and monitoring of a trail of 500 nest-boxes, which not only provide birds with safe breeding sites, but also allow us to monitor their reproduction and behaviors to investigate potential causes of their declines.

The goal of their capacity building activity was to expand and upgrade their nest-box video cameras and transition into cloud-based data collection to improve, digitize and promote more efficient protocols for avian monitoring throughout the whole breeding season. Using these videos, they studied and analyzed behaviors inside the nest during day and night, to support conservation. Their staff will learn how to deploy and use the equipment and will receive professional training to catalogue and analyze behavior from video. Furthermore, through live streaming and other outreach activities, they engaged the community and transferred knowledge on the importance of wildlife monitoring for conservation purposes.

This grant allowed Ellis Bird Farm to improve its technology and equipment which has improved its environmental monitoring efforts for mountain bluebirds and other secondary cavity nesting songbirds such as tree swallows as well as for bat monitoring projects. The nest box cameras are capable of connecting to the cloud and can be powered from solar panels. This has greatly improved their ability to transition into cloud-based data collection and are more efficient in the field. Projects supported by this grant include population monitoring, nestbox data collection, parental behaviours that affect reproductive success and bat population monitoring. Due to lower nestbox camera equipment costs than anticipated and limited video captrured in 2023, Ellis Bird Farm requested and received a 6 month extension and shift to include creating an interactive display on Mountain Bluebirds and their nestbox monitoring trail.

Ellis Bird Farm has a history of songbird research and monitoring and this initiative has allowed them to update their technology to improve data collection. With iPads, data collection in the field is feasible and more efficient. Improving the camera technology has meant that they are able to live-stream and engage with the public more effectively. They are also able to develop an interactive touch screen display on Mountain Bluebirds and Purple Martins. This bright and easy to use display will engage and educate the public in our Visitor Centre, thus raising awareness of the impacts affecting songbird populations. Other wildlife projects such as the bat population monitoring, are also improved with the addition of an infra-red camera lens and echo locator which allow them to improve the accuracy of bat counts and provide recordings of the bat calls. Future projects will include analysis of these bat calls to help improve our understanding of the bat species in Central Alberta.