The clue is in the poo! Secrets to boosting the recovery of at risk pied flycatcher could be revealed in new research into bird droppings and choice of nest location

The project which featured on last night’s Springwatch on BBC2 and iPlayer, named “Should I stay, or should I go?” will see researchers analyse bird poo and data about microhabitat differences around nest boxes to help ornithologists and conservationists understand more about what gives these fascinating birds, whose numbers are in decline in the UK but doing well at Longshaw, the best chance of breeding success.

The National Trust has been working on a pied flycatcher nesting conservation project at Longshaw since 2014 following population declines across the UK.

A summer migrant to the UK, this small bird flies thousands of miles from its African wintering grounds to breed in the UK. Whilst the mature oakwoods of Wales are a stronghold for this characteristic bird, the Longshaw estate is an important study site on the eastern edge of its distribution. And, despite the bird suffering severe population declines around the millennium, their population has stabilised thanks to conservation efforts like the nestbox project at Longshaw.

Mark Bull, the National Trust ranger who has been working on the pied flycatcher nest box project at Longshaw since it began explained:

“There is a real sense of excitement when we see the first pied flycatchers arrive at Longshaw in the spring. Our management of the woodlands provide a great habitat for this declining bird species to thrive in. A dedicated team of volunteers and rangers put a lot of time and effort into monitoring the nest boxes in these woodlands that is core to the research. Whilst birds will nest in natural holes in trees like the oaks in our managed woodlands our nest boxes provide extra nesting opportunity for this scarce species and is core to researching the conservation needs of this species.

“Last year we had 308 chicks fledge from the boxes alone, our most successful breeding season for a decade. Our data tells us that some birds return to the same box they were born in to raise their young, but little is known about why these birds make decisions about where to nest and if certain conditions improve the success of the nests. We hope this fascinating research project will provide some of those answers.”

Dr Danni Hinchcliffe, Lecturer in Conservation Biology and Ecology at Liverpool John Moores University is the principal researcher working on the study. She first discovered Longshaw was a great place for bird watching during her academic studies as a student at the University of Sheffield and as a trainee bird ringer with the Sorby Breck Ringing Group.

She explained more about why the project is so important: “Longshaw is one of the last remaining places that you can see pied flycatchers in this part of the country, so it makes an ideal place to do the research. This mutually beneficial project will help to fill the key gaps in academic knowledge in the field of ornithology, but importantly, the results of this study will help build on the evidence gathered by the National Trust team to support the maximum breeding success for these very special birds.

“I hope what we discover here will be useful for designing and developing more places that are as attractive to pied flycatchers as the woodlands at Longshaw.”

She continued: “We will do our research on specific nest boxes across two woodlands where data shows that the birds do well, in terms of successfully fledging chicks each year, and alternatively on boxes that haven’t done so well. This will allow us to look at potential explanatory factors which might be driving this variation in population performance.”

Work started on the research project earlier in the year, before the birds arrived back to the woodlands from spending the winter months in Africa. Rangers and volunteers placed data loggers on nest boxes to measure the microclimate on and around individual boxes.

When the birds arrived in April, they were fitted with passive integrated transponder (PIT) tags with the help of qualified British Trust for Ornithology ringers from the Sorby Breck Ringing Group. These specially designed tags record movement patterns as the birds enter and leave the boxes. The data from the tags will also show if they are competing with each other or with other species, such as blue tits and great tits.

The team will be taking samples of the bird’s poo as part of their nest box checks, which will be analysed by Danni and her team in the laboratory at Liverpool John Moores University. The tests will measure hormone levels to check the bird’s stress levels and find out what they are eating through DNA metabarcoding techniques. This will give a unique insight into the type of meals the surrounding woodland is providing for the birds and if there is something special that is a magic ingredient to boost breeding success and sustain the newly hatched chicks.

The project will continue for several years to gather sufficient data and consider things like changing weather conditions in different breeding seasons. Students from the university will work alongside rangers and volunteers from the National Trust during that time.

The research also hopes to help answer unknown facts about the young birds such as where they go before heading back to non-breeding grounds in winter.