Hubert Prescott was born in February 1899 on a farm on the Nehalem River near Jewell, Oregon.  He loved bluebirds as a child, and while they had been very common in the 1940’s by the time he had retired in 1965, they had almost completely disappeared from the northern Willamette Valley. 

In 1971 after six years of searching the area he finally found a pair nesting in an old nestbox on Chehalem Mountain.  In talking with the landowner he found there were about a dozen pairs nesting in the area all in old nestboxes people had on their property.  He spent many hours researching and watching the bluebirds.  Then he began building nest boxes, experimenting with box size and nestbox hole size. 

He approached landowners in the area and explained his interest in helping restore the Western Bluebird to its former habitat.  By 1975 he had installed nest boxes on Chehalem, Parrett, Cooper and Bull Mountain areas, the West Hills of Portland; and the Molalla, Colton and West Linn-Stafford areas. 

It became impossible for him to monitor and maintain all the boxes so he enlisted the help of the Portland Audubon Society and other volunteers.  The Prescott Bluebird Recovery Program is based on the work of Mr Prescott, the volunteers who helped him, and those that carried on his work.