American Kestrel populations in the northeast have been decreasing steadily. MassWildlife has installed over 100 nest boxes in Massachusetts in order to aid in the conservation of kestrels. This project studied landscape features surrounding the nest boxes to better understand variables that contributed to nest box occupancy. We used in depth analysis of land cover with ArcMAP and quantitative analysis of basic landscape features, including Spearman Rank Correlations and Akaike’s Information Criterion, to help refine the criteria for nest box occupancy amongst American Kestrels so that we could recommend future nest box placement to MassWildlife.

• This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

Creator

• Miller, Paula Elizabeth
• Berner, Cara AiXin
• Cerio, Francesca Louisa
• Shraibati, Olivia Suzanne

Publisher

• Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Identifier

• E-project-101815-193858

Advisor

• Bakermans, Marja

Year

• 2015

Sponsor

• Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy & Environmental Affairs -- Division of Fisheries & Wildlife

Date created

• 2015-10-18

Resource type

• Major Qualifying Project

Major

• Biology & Biotechnology

Rights statement

• In Copyright