Today the National Parks and Wildlife Service launched 'Nestflix': two new livestreams direct from West Cork which will allow people to tune in and watch chough pairs as they go about building their nests and rearing their chicks during the nesting season. You'll find the livestreams on YouTube at the links below:
The chough is an endangered species listed on Annex I of the EU Birds Directive, and through their Nestflix nest cams, our NPWS rangers hope they can observe and get a better understanding of the changing nesting habits of this striking bird. There are up to 900 pairs of chough breeding in Ireland, and 30% of the national population can be found in County Cork. In recent years, NPWS rangers have noticed some chough pairs moving further inland to nest in old buildings, away from their traditional coastal nesting sites.
We now think about a third of the chough population in Cork is nesting in buildings inland rather than crevices in cliffs, and this presents the birds with a series of new breeding and survival challenges. Human activity can disturb their nests or cause their nesting sites to be completely lost, while eggs and chicks are more vulnerable to predators such as rats and crows.
The NPWS has installed nest boxes in some of the more vulnerable locations, and the livestreams will allow for monitoring of a sample of the chough population during the nesting season so we can study how these challenges affect them, with the aim of protecting their population. Their breeding behaviour is not usually observable due to the remote and difficult to reach nature of those coastal nesting sites, so these cameras will provide a rare and fascinating glimpse into all stages of their breeding, from nest-building to chicks fledging. I'm choughed that through Nestflix everyone can tune in and follow their fortunes!