hi, we have a tit box in our garden. I have read that if you have nesting tits, you should remove any feeding stations; hanging peanuts right down to remove any food from the tables or ground feeders otherwise the tits will be discouraged from using the nesting box because they’re too much competition. Is this true? The reason I ask is that when I lived in my old place, I wasn’t aware of this fact and I had a nest box very close to the bird table and with a peanut feeder hanging right next to it and I still have net tits nesting in the box of many years
can somebody clarify this for me please?
Feeders won't prevent birds from nesting. They do increase conflict risk though. Taking your previous house as an example. If you were putting food out during the breeding season, unless you had other birds of the same species (or same nesting requirements potentially), there would be no extra conflict as the food didn't bring in more competition to the area. If, however, you were needing to top up the feeders every few days, you would be creating more risk of conflict. Conflict then means more stress and energy wasted defending territory over feeding chicks. As an aside, peanuts aren't a good food source during the breeding season, and often get overlooked by birds anyway at that time of year.