About BluebirdStewards.online
Organizations
Routes
Boxes
Observations
Reports
Training Videos
About BluebirdStewards.online
What can I do with the Bluebird web app?
The Bluebird Steward web app is designed to help organizations responsible for monitoring and managing numerous bluebird boxes. Typically, these organizations consist of a number individuals who follow a route to monitor and maintain a number of bluebird boxes on that route. They frequently rely on forms and spreadsheets to try to manage the results of their observations. The observations are frequently only shared with own organization The organization may consolidate their information and feed it to a research group. This app does away with the spreadsheets and cumbersome process of rolling up the information. It also allows for sharing the information with other member organizations and provides an easy way to share the information with other external organizations such as NestWatch.org. Click here to find out how your organization can join.
There are a number of different roles for users of this app. They are:
- General Public: Anybody not logged into the app.
- Subscriber: Someone logged into the app.
- Organization Member: A subscriber who is also a member of an organization.
- Organization guest: A guest of an organization can see any information associated with the organization but has limited capabilities.
- Organization Admin: An organization member who is able to and tasked with managing the organization membership and routes.
- Route Steward: A subscriber who is able to and tasked with monitoring one or more bluebird box routes.
The following table lists operations that maybe performed by the various roles:
| Operation | Public | Subscriber | Org Guest | Org Member | Route Steward | Org Admin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View summary of steward observations. | X | X | X | X | X | X |
| View detailed observations of specific boxes | X | X | X | X | X | X |
| Enter observations for personal boxes | X | X | X | X | ||
| Enter observations for public boxes | X | X | ||||
| Manage route name and boxes (Add, edit etc.) | X | X | ||||
| Manage routes (Add, edit etc.) | X | |||||
| Add/remove route stewards | For their routes | X | ||||
| View box locations | X | X | X |
Organizations
There are two types of organizations in BluebirdStewards.online:
Member organizations
BluebirdStewards.online member organizations are typically grass roots organizations responsible for monitoring and maintaining bluebird boxes for Citizen Science and/or population recovery. While this site highlights bluebirds, it supports any species. Member organizations have one or more Org Admins who manage the member and guest list for the organization as well as the number of routes in the organization.
Personal Boxes
The “Personal Boxes” organization is only visible to subscribers who are guests or members of one or more member organization. The “Personal Boxes ” organization is a virtual organization. It allows guests or members of any organization to capture and share observations on their personal bluebird boxes without sharing actual gps locations. There are no Org Admins for the “Personal Boxes” route.
How can my organization join BluebirdStewards.online?
If your organization would like to take advantage of BluebirdStewards.online to help organize, analyze and share their information send an email to admin@bluebirdstewards.online
Routes
Just as with organizations, there are two type of routes in BluebirdStewards.online:
Organizational Routes
An organizational route is a collection of bluebird boxes monitored and maintained by specific members of a member organization. These specific members are referred to as Bluebird Stewards and each route has one or more Steward who is allowed to add, remove and edit boxes for the route as well as record observations for all the boxes in the route.
Personal Routes
A personal route belongs to the “Personal Boxes” organization. Like an organizational route, a personal route is a collection of boxes. There are two personal routes. The “Mine” route may contain up to five of your own personal boxes. If you are a member or guest of a member organization you automatically have a “Mine” route. The “Others” route contains all the personal boxes not belonging to you.
How can I add/remove routes?
You must be an Org Admin to add and delete routes. If you are an Org Admin. Go to the Routes menu item and select the org you wish to add a route to. Part way down the page there is a “Routes” section with an “edit” link to the right of the section. Click the edit link to view the Org Routes wizard.
Org Routes Wizard
The Org Routes wizard may show from one to three sections.
“New Routes” section is used to add one or more routes to an org. Type the names of the new routes, one per line.
The “Delete/Decommission” section is used to delete a route, if it does not contain any boxes. Otherwise the route is decommissioned to retain all the route information.
The “Reactivate” section is used to reactivate a decommissioned route.
Boxes
Just as with the orgs and routes there are two types of boxes.
Public Boxes
Public boxes are boxes monitored and maintained by a member organization. There are several box configuration properties such as location, height, hole size, etc. The location property is store as a geocode (gps coordinate) and is important as it is required for us to share the observations with organizations such as NestWatch.
Private Boxes
Private boxes are just like public boxes except they belong to subscribers, not an organization, and to protect the subscribers privacy, their zip code is their location.
How do I add/remove/decommission boxes?
You can add/remove/decommission boxes from two different places: the Routes page and the Observation page.
Routes Page
Click on the Routes menu item to get to the “Routes” page.
Adding Boxes
When viewing the “Routes” page, select the org and route then look down the page for “Boxes”. Click the “edit” link to the right of that section to see the view the Routes Boxes Wizard. Use the “New Boxes” section to add one or more boxes and specify where in the list of existing boxes these should be added.
Removing/Decommission Boxes
When viewing the “Routes” page, select the org and route then look down the page for “Boxes”. Click the “edit” link to the right of that section to see the view the Routes Boxes Wizard. Use the “Delete/Decommission” section delete or decommission a box.
Observation Page
Adding Boxes
When viewing the “Observation” Page, if there are no boxes in the route, click on the “Add Boxes” button and then the “Add Boxes” button on the next dialog box, if there are some boxes in the route, click the “Configure Boxes” button and then click the “Add/Remove Boxes” button. Use the “New Boxes” section to add one or more boxes and specify where in the list of existing boxes these should be added.
Removing/Decommission Boxes
When viewing the “Observation” Page, if there are no boxes in the route, click the “Configure Boxes” button and then click the “Add/Remove Boxes” button. Use the “Delete/Decommission” section delete or decommission a box.
How do I enter the configuration properties for a box?
Configuring from Routes Page
Go to the “Routes” menu item and using the dropdown select the Organization, Route and Box. Go to the bottom of the page where the box information is displayed and click on the “Edit” link at the right. You can enter box information there. For public boxes, if you are configuring from a mobile device and allow it to use your location, you can store the location of your phone as the location of the box.
Configuring from Observation Page
In the observation page, click on the “Configure Boxes” button and the “Update This Box” button. You can enter the box configuration there. For public boxes, if you are configuring from a mobile device and allow it to use your location, you can store the location of your phone as the location of the box.
Copying configuration properties from another box
When editing the box configuration you can use the “Copy Config From” field to copy the configuration from one box to the box being edited.
Capturing Box Locations Off Line
To capture the gps location of a public box with a mobile device but no access to wifi/cellular at the box location:
- In an area with wifi/cellular access, go to the Routes page, select the Org and Route, scroll to the Map section and click on the “edit” link to the right of the section.
- Click the button to allow access location access.
- Without leaving the page, go to a box.
- Select the box in the dropdown.
- Wait for the location precision to stabilize.
- Click the Update Location button.
- Repeat these sub-steps for each box.
- Return to a location with wifi/cellular
- Click the submit button.
What does it mean to decommission a box?
Decommissioning a box hides it from the Org/RouteBox hierarchy of most pages but retains the history of the boxes for reporting purposes.
What should I do if I modify, reconfigure or relocate a box?
If a box is modified in some way that is believed to alter the desirability of the box by an avian species or success of clutch, add a new box, copy the configuration properties from the original box, make any necessary changes to the configuration and then decommission the old box. Click here to see how to copy and update box configuration properties.
What nest box information is maintained by this app?
The following information is maintained about each bluebird box.
Route: Each box is assigned to a route, which is a collection of boxes monitored by following a particular route.
Organization: Each route is assigned to an organization. This is the organization that is responsible for monitoring and maintaining the boxes on the route.
Steward: Each route is assigned one or more stewards that belong to the organization responsible for monitoring and maintaining bluebird boxes on the route.
Box: The following information about bluebird boxes is captured by bluebird stewards.online.
Observations: Observation information is described here
Type: This is the type of bluebird box. Several options are provided.
Location: For public boxes, this is the GPS coordinate of the box. For personal boxes, this is the zip code for the box location.
Nest Platform: This describes what the nest on, in or under. While “Nest box/birdhouse” is the appropriate one for most situations. Other options are provided if needed.
Habitat (1m): This describes the habitat within an arms length. Should multiple habitat options fit the situation, chose the most prevalent and/or human altered option.
Habitat(100m): This describes that habitat about a football field away from the nest. Should multiple habitat options fit the situation, chose the most prevalent and/or human altered option.
Opening Type: This describes that type of opening. It is for boxes only.
Opening Width: This is the width of the opening in inches.
Opening Height: This is the hight of the opening, from the ground, in feet.
Orientation: This is the orientation of the opening, i.e. North West.
Fledgling Space: This is the distance in feet between the nest and some plant material that the fledgling can jump up to.
Opening Guard: This describes the type of opening predator guard, if any.
Pole Guard: This describes the type of predator guard that is mounted on the box pole, if any.
Observations
What observation information is captured?
Route stewards enter observations throughout the nesting season. There are two types of observations that may be entered: nest and photo/comments observations.
Nest Observation
A nest observation captures the condition of a nest and clutch when it is present. Typically one nest observation is recored per box per visit. These observations are used to generate the route summaries displayed via the Route Summary menu option.
A nest observation may include the following. All are required unless noted otherwise:
Observation/ Action Date: This is the date of the observation. It may be changed to reflect observations from the past but may not be set to a future date.
Nest Condition: The nest condition reflect that state of the nest.
Note: the following options are only available if a nest is present.
Host Species: This is the species that built the nest and laid the eggs, if any. It does not include cowbirds as they are tracked separately.
Adult Host (optional): If the steward observes an adult host they may record it using one of the options provided in this field.
Clutch Status: The status of the clutch is recored here.
- No eggs or hatchlings observed: This option is selected if there are no observed eggs or hatchlings and the Clutch Status from the previous observation wasn’t New Clutch Found or Pre-existing Clutch Updated.
- New Clutch Found: When the first egg or hatchling, whichever is first, is observed, a clutch status of “New clutch found” is selected.
- Pre-existing Clutch Updated: For each successive observation, until all hatchlings are gone, dead or eggs are no longer viable, the “Pre-existing clutch updated” option is selected.
- Final status – Success, Fail or Unknown Status: Once all hatchlings have left, died and any remaining eggs are considered unviable or the steward has quit monitoring the nest, a final clutch status is selected to indicate a success, failure or that the nest is no longer being monitored. This is the observation that drives most of the summary content.
Note: the following options are only available if a clutch is present.
- Observed today – Eggs, Hatchlings, Dead Young: (optional) This reflects the number of eggs, hatchlings or dead young observed at the time. If the steward knows of the existence of one of these but can’t determine the number, a ‘u’ may be entered.
- Hatchling Status: (optional ) Several options are available to indicate the condition of any hatchlings.
Maximum for clutch – Eggs, Hatchlings, Fledged, Unhatched Eggs: – This is only available when a final status is selected for the observation and should reflect the total number of eggs, hatchlings, fledglings and unhatched eggs for the clutch.
Action: There are some standard actions that a steward may take and they can be selected here. Details may be documented in the “Notes” field.
Notes: Just about any notes pertaining to the observation may be entered here.
Photos and Comments
Route stewards may capture additional information, including photos as they are monitoring the bluebird boxes. There may be any number of photos recorded per box per visit.
Is there a template I can use if I don’t have connectivity on my route?
Yes, download this
Training Videos
The following videos provide an overview for configuring routes and entering observations: