Tree sparrows nest building in October .

Tree sparrows nesting in your garden? Do they normally?

I can't comment on tree sparrows, but house sparrows have intermittently been loading various nest sites, and potential nest sites with bits of vegetation throughout the year here, incl last week. I think it's a combination of claiming/marking territory, maintaining contents which inevitably degrade over time, and roosting.

I have noticed it is mostly males with nesting material outside of the breeding season.......

I get quite a lot of tree sparrows in my garden . They actually built one complete nest year before last only to abandon it when starlings kept pestering them .
This particular box they are loading has been empty all year which seems abit strange to me .

In reply to Smith26:

Where is/are the boxes the starlings were trying to access? Presumably you live in a rural location?

I have some boxes on a type of cherry tree in one corner of my garden which they birds built a nest in that was mobbed , now they are taking feathers into another box in a tree on the opposite side of the garden . Unsure what type of tree this one is .
I live on the outskirts of a town .luckily I seem to get assorts , I even had a reed bunting visit a couple of winters ago which I managed to get on my wildlife camera . The tree with the 3 boxes together is the tree I was trying to get them to colonise and the one were the starlings scattered them . The other pic with the 2 in is the one they are going in and out of now . The pic I have just taken from my camera is when they built the full nest a couple of seasons ago . 

There actually going into the other boxes now

Thanks for the photos and further info. The photo of the camera pic of a tree sparrow coming out of the box, I can't see where that box is in the photos. Certainly got a good stock of boxes!

I was hoping the be able to help re siting of them re starling conflict. Obviously larger birds, incl starlings, benefit from perching nearby. I can see that being an issue in the top photo in particular.

For some species this doesn't help as it just generates more competition in future years.....but have you considered putting up one or two starling suitable boxes on the house? Is that poss?