Hi,
As the nesting season approaches, I am anxiously waiting the first visitor to my camera box, but the nesting season is so close and I still haven't had any visitors, does that mean they are not going to nest in it ?
( I rarely get blue tits and have only ever had great tits visiting the garden once!)
Coal
Birding , Birding, Birding !
one of the things we dont know here is , if this is a new box by this i mean have you only just put this box up...
if the answer is YES then i think its a case of waitting to see, i have 5 boxes in my gaden 3 for tits, and two robins boxes theses have been up a number of years apart from the one tit box which i put up in October 08 that box was looked at last year by great tits, coal and blue tits, but sadly it wasnt used... this year to date i have great tit and blue tits showing interest in two of the boxes while a pair of coal tits are looking at this new box... i have no intrest at all in the robins boxes at this time..
the one thing you need to remember is tits have to time the laying of their eggs and hatching with the caterpillars for the young, if they get this timing wrong by a day then the young would likey die... and a poor hatching would have the same affect..
Another thing is location of the box, where is the nest box postioned, near trees away from feeding areas as birds will not set up home near ( within feet) of feed stations as most of the time they'll be defending the young in the box......
dont just look enjoy and leave for others to share after you. we dont own the earth we just rent a small part of it....
Coal said: Have you had Greenfinches, and if you do, what do they eat?
Have you had Greenfinches, and if you do, what do they eat?
I get quite a few greenfinches - they were the first new birds I got when I first started feeding the birds seriously, so if you do get them, it's a good sign.
Mine eat the husk-free seed mix (sunflower hearts and whatnot), and also the peanuts. Other people say that they eat niger seed too, but mine never have - though the goldfinch get through it at the rate of knots.
I don't know if it's just in my garden, or it's a common thing, but my finches and tits don't tend to feed together. If you're trying to encourage tits, I'd concentrate on suet (they like those half-coconuts and fat balls) as well as peanuts, but it might be worth putting them in a different area of the garden.
Unknown said: Hi coal. The RSPB say the entrance holes for nest boxes are:- 25mm for blue, coal, marsh tits 28mm for great tits, tree sparrow, pied flycatcher 32mm for house sparrows 45mm for starlings. Hope this helps, maybe as a guide to what may use your box.
Hi coal. The RSPB say the entrance holes for nest boxes are:-
25mm for blue, coal, marsh tits
28mm for great tits, tree sparrow, pied flycatcher
32mm for house sparrows
45mm for starlings.
Hope this helps, maybe as a guide to what may use your box.
We have always used 28mm for bluetits and 32mm for great tits. Maybe our great tits are fatter than average - but we've never seen one in a box with a 28mm hole. Some years ago (in April) we had a pair of GTs who were clearly getting desperate for somewhere to raise a family - and when a 28mm hole was enlarged to 32mm, the male went in soon after the box was back in place! The female went in the next day and immediately starteed bringing in moss - and by the next day the nest was complete. Normally the nest building starts earlier than this - but she finished it at the usual sort of time we've recorded.