Hubert Prescott
How it All Began
Growing up in Oregon, Hubert Prescott loved bluebirds, which were very common in the early 1900s and into the 1940s. By the time he retired in 1965, however, Western Bluebirds were nearly gone from the northern Willamette Valley.
After a six-year search, Prescott finally located a pair nesting on Chehalem Mountain in 1971. Soon after, he found about a dozen nesting pairs in the area on private properties. A scientist by training, Prescott researched, observed the birds, and experimented with box and entry hole sizes. He spent years building and installing nest boxes for the bluebirds.
By 1975 he had installed over 200 nest boxes on Chehalem, Parrett, Cooper and Bull Mountain areas, the West Hills of Portland; and the Molalla, Colton and West Linn-Stafford areas. He’d established the first bluebird trail in Oregon and counted 70 nesting pairs.
The Prescott Bluebird Recovery Project is based on the work of Mr. Prescott and the volunteers who helped him lead the recovery of the Western Bluebird in the Willamette Valley.