Community Crafting for Seabird Science

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When a community comes together to support bird conservation, we are rewarded with hope. Hope that our combined efforts will make a difference.

How can a local community group impact sea and shorebird conservation along Florida’s coastline? I’ll tell you!

Background

Protecting seabirds that nest around Florida’s coastline requires thoroughly revised species management plans backed by collaborative science and policy. Ever since the Least Tern and Black Skimmer were listed as “Threatened” in Florida due to habitat loss and rapid population decline, efforts have expanded beyond standard monitoring to include a variety of additional support methods and techniques. Among these: Deploying chick shelters and bird decoys as needed.

Chick Shelters: Serve as additional shade and protection from predators within a colony of nesting seabirds.

Decoys: After being carved and painted to represent adult Least Terns and Black Skimmers, decoys are used to attract our colonial nesting species to the most suitable and safe nesting areas.

These efforts have given our imperiled beach-nesting birds a better chance at successfully fledging young every summer.

Making Shelters and Decoys

While these tools are vital to protecting seabirds, they require a significant amount of time and effort to produce. We rely on the support and involvement of our local communities to play a hands-on role in these projects. Through our collaborative efforts with small business owners and local Audubon chapters over the past year, we successfully organized and executed a wonderful series of community events.

Chick Shelter Building Workshops

At a Francis M. Weston Audubon chapter meeting in October 2024, I explained that we needed more chick shelters. This call for action sparked Matt Hamilton’s interest. He and his spouse, Angie Hamilton, are owners of the Wild Birds Unlimited store in Pensacola. At the time, Matt was a student in the Florida Master Naturalist Program and decided to devote his independent project requirement to creating an innovative and sustainable chick shelter design: a collapsible structure made from upcycled pallet wood.

Together, we organized a series of workshops to build chick shelters based on Matt’s design. The first event focused on pallet breakdown and applying the first coat of paint. For the second event, we assembled the shelters. Matt and Angie were kind enough to provide the space outside of their storefront to host these events. We had an excellent turnout for both events, with community members of all ages joining us for a morning of giving back. Everyone worked together to assemble more than twenty chick shelters. One young participant made an effort to paint a Least Tern on the inside of one of the shelters to immortalize his contribution. The shelters were then used throughout the region during the 2025 nesting season, providing shade and protection to birds nesting on rooftops and other high-priority nesting sites.

Painting Decoys

With more chick shelters, we now need more decoys. We already had precut wooden decoys made in the shapes of Least Terns and Black Skimmers, so all they needed was a fresh paint job. Matt and Angie jumped at the chance to help again, while celebrating the first anniversary of their store in Pensacola. What better way to celebrate the store’s birthday than to host an event that contributes to seabird conservation through art?

We had a wonderful time and an incredible turnout with people of all ages completing more than forty beautifully painted Least Tern and Black Skimmer decoys. Angie and Matt even had an ice cream truck show up to give out free ice cream to all participants.

Protecting Birds and the Places They Need

Through community events organized in collaboration with local small business owners, we work to raise more awareness of our imperiled beach-nesting birds and protecting the places they need to thrive! Providing the community with creative opportunities to give back to the birds fosters stewardship and concern for the future of Florida’s special species. We will continue to host these fun and beneficial projects and welcome everyone to join us next time.