Turn up the air, turn down the heat: designing sustainable birdhouses to reduce heat stress in birds
CWSF · 2026 Environment & Climate Change Bronze Medal
Overview
Rising temperatures associated with climate change pose increasing concern for many wildlife species, including nesting birds. The purpose of this project was to build, test, and evaluate the effectiveness of a novel birdhouse design that takes advantage of convection currents and thermal buffering to reduce temperatures within artificial nest boxes. We found that convection design buffered thermal extremes and reduced daily temperature variability. These reductions in thermal extremes could decrease heat-stress bird mortality during hot periods for nesting birds.
Awards (2)
- Bronze Medal
- Selected for CWSF 2026
Competition history
- CWSF 2026
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