I'm new to house plants, but i've killed one birds nest fern before and the second is thriving (this is how we get to be good at caring for a particular kind of plant it seems you have to kill one and learn from your mistakes). What i've found is that it's easiest to water from UNDER the plant. What i mean is when the surface of the soil in the pot is dry (check it every other day folks you don't want it to get starved). Take it and set it in a shallow bowl of water mixed with the right amounts of liquid miracle grow houseplant food. Let it soak maybe 15-30minutes or until either all the water is absorbed or the surface of the soil is moist. If the soil is dry on the top and the water is all absorbed add more and check every so often. when the soil is thoroughly moist, remove the plant and drain for a few minutes (i stick it in the kitchen sink) and then return it to it's normal home. My 4 inch plastic pots sit inside glazed ceramic containers to dress them up and keep moisture from getting on the windowsill. Watering from underneath avoids crown rot (which i understand to be a problem common to this plant), and it assures even moisture in the soil, i've noted it's hard to get the soil fully watered when watering from 'overhead' esp since i have a 4inch pot for my birdsnest fern. Also i noticed in TOO HIGH lighting conditions the leaves get really really pale almost white even after just one day. When not watered enough the leaves get really dry and start getting brown spots at the edges. With crown rot i started loosing leaves rapidly and no new leaves would spring up out of the crown. I can tell my plant is healthy the way i've been caring for it now (after a few months after bringing it home from the nursery) the fronds have gotten darker (they started almost yellow and are now darker)and i'm getting new buds poking through the crown. My birdsnest fern is in a west facing window with a 6 foot porch overhang. It gets gentle light until the end of the day just before the sun sinks over the horizon. It doesn't seem to prefer bright light, nice 'understory' kind of filtered light seems to suit it well. (like what you'd get under a tree) I've started watering all my houseplants from underneath (with exception of my orchid which gets misted). The african violets and my birdsnest ferns love being watered this way from my experience. I've only had these about 6 months but for now it seems everything's going quite well.

Sounds like scale, they're a sap sucking insect with a bit of a hard shell over their back. There are insecticides for them and you can also rub them off with cotton buds dipped in alcohol. But you have to check thoroughly all over the plant and in all the nooks and crannies for any hiding that might later breed up again.

Yup, that sounds like scale. Aspleniums (including bird's nest ferns as well as various others) are very sensitive to it, and I haven't figured out any feasible way to keep them under control. Apart from toxicity problems, pesticides don't seem particularly effective. Picking them off by hand can work if you do if often and thoroughly. I don't know about staghorn ferns, but ficus certainly can get bad scale infestations. Also, for what it's worth, the sori (clusterings of spore-producing sporangia) on a bird's nest fern would look like straight dark lines starting near the center of the leaf and extending about halfway to the leaf margin. Here's a picture I took of the underside of a leaf of a large bird's nest fern with sori: Patrick Alexander

That isn't my photo, that's one that was posted in a comment to me. I have a close up of the base of mine further up in the discussion. There's one of the white specks on the right that you can see quite well. If you look at it and have any suggestions, I'm all ears. Thanks