So, you have put your nest boxes up and the birds do not use them, why? The first of several basic rules is to know the size of entry/exit hole that will suit the species you either have or wish to attract into your patch.
The requirements are 25mm for coal and marsh tit, 28mm for great tit and tree sparrow, 32mm for house sparrow and nuthatch and 45mm for starling.
Spotted flycatcher much prefer an open-fronted nest box with a 60mm-high front panel, robin and pied wagtail 100mm and wren a 140mm-high panel.
A visit to the RSPB advice website will give plans for DIY construction. It is probably sensible to purchase from a reputable supplier more specialist boxes for birds like tree creeper, barn swallow and house martin.
Larger birds like jackdaw require a 150mm entry hole and tawny owl do best with a chimney-style long box angled under a branch or on the tree trunk. The square entry hole should measure 230mm x 230mm.
That white, ghostlike bird of the evening’s deepening gloom, the barn owl, is best helped by utilising an outbuilding or barn and erecting a box inside (a tea chest is ideal).
We are often disappointed when, after all our good intentions, expense and trouble, many of our boxes remain unused. After all, we thought we had offered the ultimate in bird des res.
A few tips: l Unless nest boxes are well shaded, the entrance should face north or east l Place boxes out of reach of cats l Ensure a good food supply, perhaps a few live mealworms extra to your normal feeding activities and do resist drenching your garden with poisons, better to share a few plants with the slugs etc than decimate the young lives struggling for survival in your nest boxes.
l If you have a climber on the house, then place your open-fronted spotted flycatcher nest box within the foliage, likewise your wren will enjoy a degree of camouflage if you place the box in the ivy growing in profusion on the boundary wall.
l This time of year, November into December, is a very good time to site nest boxes, as it gives birds time to inspect and choose them, ready for what, I trust, will be an exciting and enjoyable experience for you.
I wish you luck.
Barry Hudson Oxford Ornithological Society
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