Bird boxes used in autumn/winter.

I agree with Tony, every Autumn i clean out 40 bird boxes on the local Devon Wildlife site which i carried out last week. This process also tells us whether the box was used what the nest was made of and if the nest was successful. 2014 was a bad year with a wet and cold snap in the spring. Young chicks perished and some nests were deserted. This spring was a good one with 75% of the nest boxes used no eggs or chicks found suggesting all birds fledged. One Nuthatch nest, the rest were used by Tits and one of the boxes used by Hornets with the box overwhelmed by an intricate Hornets nest, this was a surprise when i opened the lid, thankfully no hornets home!!.  Birds do use them to roost. I saw one box used by Wrens. We counted 15 birds leave one box, they must have been well snuggled up over night. This continued over a cold spell several years ago, and was at the in-laws not on the Reserve.

Hi Lisa, after having a cam nestbox up unused for two years, last October time a BT used it to roost in ... no nest materials were brought in, just the bare box which became well covered in poo by Spring!  Suddenly it started to prepare a nest & I was very excited ... after a week it left & never returned!  Some weeks later a male House Sparrow took over & cleared  all the BT nst materials!  Again I was hopeful but Spadger never made a nest ... spent most of the Summer perched on roof of box or on TV aerial just above constantly trying to attract a mate but was never successful!

This box is on wall just above my bedroom window & I can hear noises if bird enters, also have a tiny laptop handy to plug cam in to check progress ... nothing yet!

Hi Tony,yes I always clean my bird boxes out.This blue tit is fascinating to watch going in & out of the box I definitely think he's claimed it for himself.