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I have built a 3 compartment nesting box for sparrows to RSPB dimentions and sited it on the east wall of the house. Of the three compartments, holes face one north, one east and one south. The south and east were both occupied by Blue Tits last year (No sparrows) This year the east facing hole compartment has been home to House Sparrows who have had 3 broods and chased away all other interested birds. I also built a Starling nesting box again to RSPB dimensions and sited it on the North wall of the house about 6 feet away from where starlings persist in squeezing into the roof space between gutter and tiles. No birds seem to have shown any interest in this box at all in the past 2 years. As neither this box or the north hole compartment in the other box have never been occupied, is a north facing hole not a desirable home for starlings, sparrows or tits?
A north facing box should be a desirable direction for a nesting bird however it sometimes takes them a while to move in. Two years may seem like a long time to wait but sometimes you often have to wait much longer until they find them! The flip side to that is that some birds move in literally minutes after the box goes up, thats the unpredictablility of wildlife for you. Generally we don't advise facing nesting boxes south as that can pick up the most sun making conditions uncomfortable for any birds inside. North or East facing boxes should be the most suitable.
It sounds as if the sparrow terrace you have put up is doing really well, you may see it being used by multiple pairs in future years now that they have found it. I wonder if anyone else using the forums has tried a sparrow terrace, if so please share your success/failures with us, it would be really interesting to hear how productive they are.
I want to place nest boxes, one to each mature tree. Could fixing them to the trunks in any way damage the trees. I have a prolific collection of garden birds.....tits, finches, robins, nuthatches, great spotted woodpeckers and so on and would like to encourage some of them to next. I would welcome any feedback. Thank you, JM
Unknown said: I want to place nest boxes, one to each mature tree. Could fixing them to the trunks in any way damage the trees. I have a prolific collection of garden birds.....tits, finches, robins, nuthatches, great spotted woodpeckers and so on and would like to encourage some of them to next. I would welcome any feedback. Thank you, JM
No, attaching the nest boxes to the trees will not damage them in any way. I'd advise that you use galvanised screws and fittings that way you will have no issues with rust. But even so, a rusty screw won't do any real damage to the tree. :)
Hi JM
depending on how close your trees are to each other
I would try different types of boxes well spaced. Your robin box wants to be well hidden.
if you use the same type of boxes too close you could have the birds fighting for terrotory
Ray