Nithin Bhandari wasn’t necessarily looking for a way to help the bluebird population in North Park thrive when he began visiting the Latodami Nature Center several years ago.

However, the North Allegheny sophomore was on the search for volunteer opportunities when he discovered that his computer programming skills might help ensure that the bluebirds have what they needed to propagate.

Over the past several years, the Latodami Nature Center has been working to help reverse the bluebirds’ declining population by placing more than 300 nesting boxes in the park.

Creating such a large network of places for the birds to lay and hatch eggs also caused a logistical problem for the center’s staff and volunteers — they had no easy way to locate the boxes scattered around the nearly 3,100-acre park to check on their condition and gather data about the birds using them.

“Bluebirds use the boxes when they breed during spring and summer,” said Bhandari, 15, of Franklin Park. “So monitoring and maintaining them is a crucial part of making sure the birds have suitable living conditions.”

Bhandari, whos has been interested in computer programming since middle school, thought that applying a little technology might provide a practical solution for the dilemma.

His efforts to develop a tracking and monitoring system for the bluebird boxes was recently recognized with a Presidential Volunteer Service Gold Award medal.

Bhandari began his project by trekking through the park to find the boxes and then pinpointed their location on Google maps. He then created a naming system to identify each box and affixed a QR or Quick Response code label to the box that could be used to upload data once they were inspected.

“All they have to do now is scan the QR code from a list using their phone to get the directions,” he said. “Once they are done inspecting the boxes the information they gather can be uploaded to the database by scanning the QR code, which opens up a form that can be filled out while they‘re still in the field.”

Ken Knapp, an assistant naturalist at Lotodami who runs the bluebird program, said efforts during the past 50 years to help the bluebird population in the United States have started to yield results.

“In the 1960s, bluebirds were in deep decline because of invasive bird species such as the English sparrow and starlings,” he said. “Those species were reducing the number of bluebird hatchlings because they are aggressive and often force the bluebirds out of their nesting places or kill them.

“People started recognizing what was happening and started these bird box programs to address the problem,” he said.

But simply putting up a box isn’t enough, he said.

“They have to be maintained, cleaned and monitored, which means having someone go out to check on them weekly,” he said. “That’s where Nithin’s project has really helped us.”

Knapp said about two-thirds of the 450 hatchlings counted in the park this year were bluebirds.

“We’ve added about 60 additional boxes and now have a way for our 30 volunteers to monitor them, so I think we could see double the number of hatchlings next year,” he said.

Knapp said he was impressed with Bhandari’s resourcefulness while carrying out the project.

“He’s a quiet guy, but very smart and sophisticated,” Knapp said. “He spent a lot of time on the project and was very dedicated to helping us. I think he’s going to do well in whatever he pursues.”

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