Putting up nesting boxes or not?

Hi Pollybee, not sure if sparrows attacking baby robins is correct! I have never heard or seen this and I have had lots or young Robins in the garden, and I don't see why you should not put up nest boxes in the garden if you have the room and a safe place to site it.
I get young blackbirds here and have lots of cats visiting the garden so they do succeed in bringing up young, the only thing I am scared of is we also have grey squirrels and if they came across the nest would take the eggs i'm sure so if you dont get these just let nature take its course, and i'm sure other members will give more advice.

Hello Polly,   It's a good time now to put up nesting boxes which some birds will also roost in as the weather gets much colder.      Although we have just given our large garden up recently and moved,  we did have several nest boxes up catering for different species such as Blue Tit, Great Tit, Nuthatch, and open style boxes suitable for robins.    I found that Blackbirds would always build their own nest in dense shrubbery or hedging but by providing plenty of extra plant cover for the blackbirds placing different shrubs along fence line this helped keep their nests safer from predators;    if you have cats in the neighbourhood then special (plastic) spiked edging can be purchased to add to the top of the fence.     With regards to nesting boxes, I found the Woodstone (concrete) boxes were the most successful;   they were used each year by Blue Tits and also Great Tit but latterly two pairs of Nuthatches raised their broods in two of the Woodstone boxes.     These boxes will also help protect birds from predators, especially if you get Great Spotted Woodpeckers who tend to drill into wooden nest boxes to access chicks.     Boxes for tit type birds should be sited around 2 - 4 metres high between North and North East so boxes don't get too hot during summer months;   open boxes for robins should be sited slightly lower down within natural foliage cover like ivy or shrubbery.     If you have wooden nest boxes already ensure you add a metal hole plate around the entrance as this also helps protect the entrance from being enlarged by predators.   We used to staple three quarter inch wire mesh  which covered down the side of the wooden box, underneath the bottom and up the other side of the box as this was additional protection from birds like woodpeckers.     I would suggest you don't go less than 28mm nest hole size.        We did not get house sparrows in our garden so cannot comment on them attacking robins although I do know they give the summer House Martin birds a hard time and can hamper their nesting attempts.   

Hope this info helps and good luck next nesting season and hope you may get some winter roosters in your boxes.