The Bradford Woods Conservancy is hosting a program to teach people how they can participate in efforts to restore the dwindling bluebird population by creating nesting boxes.

The March 16 program titled “Bluebirds In Bradford Woods” will be presented by Ray Morris and Ken Knapp of the Latodami Nature Center in North Park, where a bluebird nesting box program launched nearly four years ago is showing promising results.

The hybrid program will be held at 7 p.m. in Bradford Woods Community Church, 4836 Wexford Run Road, and via the Zoom meeting app. The ID for the meeting is 882 9153 8122; and the Passcode is 569017.

In late February, the borough joined the bluebird restoration program by placing three nesting boxes in the 5-acre Bradford Woods Reserve conservation area off Lincoln Road.

According to the National Audubon Society, the bluebird population suffered a serious decline during the 1960s and ’70s because of “dwindling habitat, increased use of pesticides and the introduction of aggressive, non-native competitors such as the House Sparrows and European Starlings.”

Audubon credits the introduction of nesting box programs across the country with helping to reverse the decline.

The organization reported in 2019 that North America was home to nearly 3 billion fewer birds overall compared to 1970, which is a decline of more than 1 in 4 birds.

Morris and Knapp will discuss how a group of 50 volunteers monitor the more than 350 bluebird boxes scattered in North Park each week during the nesting season.

In addition to general information about birds, bird feeding and plants and trees that attract birds, the program will include information about where to buy or how to build a nesting box and the procedure for monitoring bird activity.

“Even though bluebird populations have significantly decreased, their future can be promising,” said Ward Allebach, president of the Bradford Woods Conservancy.

“Beginning in the 1960s, concerned birders started to establish bluebird box trails,” he said. “These trails along with individual boxes placed by homeowners have been making an impact on bringing this important bird back in the eastern U.S.”

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