Hi everyone,
Last year we had House Sparrows in our loft and the nest broke so they got stuck in a cavity wall and unfortunately died. After that we decided to put up a bird box near our soffits to encourage them to nest in the box. This year we were lucky enough to have blue tits nest in the box and the parents have been feeding the little one for probably a couple of weeks now; it sounded quite big. This morning we noticed it had fledged and was sitting in the middle of our driveway. There are walls on both sides and no vegetation around leaving it quite exposed. We placed an additional board against the wall and plants in around to give it cover from predators and the bright sun, but otherwise left it alone.
Unfortunately our area has many cats and our neighbours have a kitten and sadly it was discovered despite our best efforts to shoo it away. We even placed an old fire guard across our back alley. The fledgling did look quite young and had no feathers on its head and could barely open it's eyes. I wonder if it was too young?
On reflection, where the box is placed has no cover underneath for the fledgling to hide in. We have hedges but they are on top of a small wall. I thought any fledgling would be old enough to fly into the hedge but this one could barely open its eyes.
I am now wondering if I should remove the box because it's encouraging birds to nest in a bad place or keep it in because it's better they nest in the box than in our hedges where they will certainly get eaten by the local cat population. Any advice please?
Thanks