Mass of white stork nests predicted from their size: online calculator and implications for conservation

Abstract Ecologists and wildlife managers require useful tools to reduce the human-wildlife conflict. So far, little attention has been paid to the damage caused by avian nesting on man-made structures. We weighed 145 occupied nests of the white stork (Ciconia ciconia) in eastern Poland and applied general linear models (multiple regressions) to predict a nest’s mass from its measurements. Nests measured showed large variation in size (mean ± SD = 140.9 ± 23.7 cm, range: 80–230 cm in diameter; 59.7 ± 27.8 cm, range: 10–140 cm in height) and weighted 70–1348 kg (mean ± SD: 378 ± 251 kg). We set up a free online calculator which uses model equations to estimate nest masses given nest dimensions. Apart from the management application, it can be used in ecological research, e.g. nests tracked over subsequent seasons, and even into account weather data to assess the effect of climate change.