NestWatch Open Dataset

NestWatch is a participatory science project operated by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Since 1965, members of the public have been following a standardized protocol for observing and reporting birds' nests in the United States and Canada (and more recently, other countries). This dataset contains raw nest records submitted to NestWatch. The metadata paper associated with this dataset (Bailey et al. 2024) is critical for understanding fields and their contents (see related links below). The dataset contains millions of nest check observations from > 860,000 nest attempts (as of January 2026). Details about NestWatch can be found on the project website: www.nestwatch.org. This dataset is scheduled for updates annually on or about January 31. Relevant information can also be found on the NestWatch website here: https://nestwatch.org/opendata. See documentation at "Related links" on this page for further details.