The incidence of plastic in seabird nests can be used to track changes in the amounts of marine debris, but large sample sizes are needed for accurate estimates. Surveys of active nests cause disturbance to breeding birds, so we need an efficient way to sample nest plastics. Photographs of brown noddy Anous stolidus nests at Ducie Atoll, southeast Pacific Ocean, allowed rapid characterisation of plastic use with limited disturbance, and showed selection for blue-green items. Plastic was more prevalent in noddy nests at Ducie Atoll (97%) than at Inaccessible Island, South Atlantic Ocean (41%), despite lower debris densities at Ducie. Differences in nesting habitat and the resultant availability of natural nesting material drive this difference in plastic loads. Using photographs to record plastic in seabird nests reduces disturbance to breeding birds and might decrease the risk of missing cryptic debris items. Photographs also provide a permanent record of pollution levels.

海鸟巢中塑料的发生率可用于追踪海洋垃圾数量的变化，但需要大量样本才能进行准确估计。对活动巢的调查会对繁殖鸟类造成干扰，因此我们需要一种有效的方法来对巢塑料进行采样。棕色点头Anous stolidus的照片在太平洋东南部的杜西环礁筑巢，可以在有限的干扰下快速表征塑料用途，并显示了对蓝绿色物品的选择。尽管杜西的残骸密度较低，但在杜西环礁的巢状巢中塑料更为普遍（97％），而在南大西洋无法进入的岛屿（41％）更为普遍。筑巢栖息地的差异以及天然筑巢材料的可利用性导致了塑料负载的差异。用照片记录海鸟巢中的塑料可以减少对繁殖鸟类的干扰，并可以减少遗失神秘碎片的风险。照片还提供了污染水平的永久记录。