Hi all,
Three years ago I bought a sparrow nesting community box (3 in 1) from the RSPB (so it must be good) and placed it in the recommended position and direction (facing east and at least 9 feet up) on the side if the house.
We get sparrows at the nearby feeder but after 3 years, nothing has taken up residence, apart from maybe a few spiders.
The box is near the back door and a busy bird feeder is close by. I'm wondering if being close to the door or other birds is putting them off. When we lived in Lincolnshire 20 years ago, we had a roof full of sparrows and starlings - they used to get under the old pantiles - and no amount of activity nearby with noisy young children running in and out made the slightest bit of difference to the spuggies (Scottish for sparrows).
Any ideas on why they don't like my nest box? It doesn't have perches - just three holes.
Cheers.
Hi falcojock
I think as with everything its time, i had tit boxes up and took two years before a pair nested in them... you say that there is feeders nearby... birds will not nest near to feeders as they would spend to much time fighting off other birds from the feeders to rise young........ could that be the problem......????
i did remove the feeders to a new location and leave the sparrow box where it is...... there is still time to do this if you do it now... and with luck you may find they move in quickly........
Move feeders and i bet within weeks the sparrows will move in...............
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....
Hi FalcoJock think part of the trouble as well may be too close to back door as I think that when nesting under a roof the Sparrows would not bother about people being close with a nest box would perhaps be less in numbers and also take more notice of people.Feel sure Kestrel is also right about the feeders being close.Good luck in future even this year as Sparrows probably have two or three broods.
Thanks for the replies. I have moved the nesting box this morning to a new location. I don't have a side of a building that is more suitable, so it is now about 9 to 10 feet (3 metres in new money) up in our silver birch, and facing east. I did have a busy hanging feeder in the same tree, but I've found a new location for that, some distance away.
I assume sparrows won't mind a tree location??? Maybe something else might have a look.
Which reminds me, I was correct about the spiders, but wrong about no birds having used it. They have obviously used it as a roost, since there were feathers and droppings in two of the compartments. The third compartment housed the large spider.
So it has had a spring clean and we'll see if it attracts nesting birds this year...