Heron, egret, and cormorant Nest Stage data
Counts of nesting herons, egrets, and cormorants by site and date in San Francisco Bay from 2014 – 2019. Each row represents the status of an individual nest during a single visit to the breeding colony.
Field Descriptions:
- ColonyName/ColonyID – A unique identifier for each colony, describing geographic location of colony
- Latitude/Longitude – coordinates in decimal degrees and WGS84
- SpeciesCode – 4 letter code used to identify species
- Standard species code based on common name (e.g. GBHE for Great Blue Heron)
- Visit this page for full list of species
- NestNumber – identifier for nest
- FocalNest – 0 for no; 1 for yes. Indicates whether the observer is tracking this nest over time as a focal nest (see volunteer manual for more detail)
- NestStatus – indicates whether the nest is in use. Before 1 April, active nests must either have two adults present or one adult carrying nesting material or incubating. After 1 April, any occupied nest is considered active.
- NestStage:
- See Stage Guides for more detail
- NestStage of 0 – Defined by prenesting: birds at or near colony, courtship, mating, roosting, nest construction
- NestStage of 1 – Defined by egg laying or incubation, adult on nest for long periods, standing to turn eggs
- NestStage of 2 – Defined by hatching, small downy chicks, feeding low in nest, watch carefully when adults move
- NestStage of 3 – Defined by chicks (usually) standing; most/all down replaced by juvenile plumage, parents continuously at nest
- NestStage of 4 – Defined by adults not continuously at nest (may remain after feeding); chicks (usually) on nest platform
- NestStage of 5 – Defined by young often off nest, on nearby branches
- ChickCountConfident – 0 for not confident of chick count; 1 for confident of chick count. Lack of confidence is most often due to poor visibility and/or small chicks
