Mariton: Nesting Great-crested Flycatchers

by Tim Burris, Preserve Manager.  Photo by Carole Mebus.

For the last few years we have had Great-crested Flycatchers nesting in a Kestrel Box. This year we saw the pair checking out the nest box during the Migratory Bird Census, but they stopped appearing in that area as the spring progressed.  We were still hearing them sing, so I knew they had found a cavity.  I eventually saw them going in and out of a smaller nest box in Field #2.  Carole got some good photos of one of the adults taking food to the box.  Right after that I heard the babies talking inside the box when I walked by one day.