Nest Boxes and the Scientific Rigour of Experimental Studies

The use of nest boxes as a tool for the study of ecological, genetical and evolutionary problems in avian biology has until now suffered from a number of problems. Koening et al. (1992) suggested that these problems are not specific to the nest box situation and that they are not real problems. However, I suggest that there are at least three major problems; (1) when scientists manipulate the environment in order to perform a study (for example by provisioning of a particular kind of boxes at a particular density), they may bias their results; (2) the kinds and the amount of bias caused by the use of nest boxes have not been carefully quantified; and (3) most studies based on nest boxes have not reported their methods carefully, thereby preventing interpretation and replication