Why Do You Put Up Nestboxes? (1 Viewer)

I'm a PhD candidate studying urban bird conservation, lifelong birder, and this is only my second post on BirdForum.

I have a chapter in my dissertation on the history of nestboxes and current nestbox practices, and would like to comment on why people are motivated to put up nestboxes. This isn't an official poll; someday I may do a more detailed and scientific survey. In the meantime...here's my questions.

Why are you motivated to put up nestboxes?
How did you get started putting up nestboxes?
With all the other things you could be doing, why put up nestboxes?

If you care to respond, please do so in as much detail as you are comfortable with, but I'd really love to hear everyone's thoughts on this. And if you give me a really juicy quote, maybe I can work it into the disseration!

Thanks in advance for your comments.

Hi BirdChaser. On behalf of the entire staff here at BirdForum, a warm welcome to you.

I've seen you posted three queries and I am sure you will get quite an array of answers.
The other two, I will have to think on a bit but a quick answer here would be:

1. I enjoy watching birds go about their daily business and I also enjoy photographing them so I try to make my yard as bird friendly as possible.
2. With as much of their natural habitat being culled for new construction, we run the risk of losing many of our songbird population. I like to think of it as providing alternative accomodations and if I'm lucky, I will get 3 or 4 different songbird broods through the breeding season in my nestboxes.
3. I get to watch the growing stage once the eggs hatch and then get to watch them fledge.

I suppose I am living vicariously through the birds that nest in my nestboxes but there is nothing like it to minimize the worries and stresses of the day in my book

Good answer KC :t:

Motivation
We enjoy bird watching and what better place than to have them literally on the back doorstep. We have a bird friendly garden, providing shelter and food throughout the year so what's more natural than providing few homes as well

We have several nestboxes around the garden in additional to roosting pockets hidden in shrubs that some of the smaller species (Wrens and Robins) prefer. Some are used for winter roosting as well as for nesting providing protection from predators as well a additional shelter from the weather.

One nestbox has a DIY video camera installed so we can watch nest development and what bird is roosting there over winter.

Some years the birds in the countryside do struggle due to weather conditions and lack of food so any little helps. Not really an issue though as we don't provide boxes for a wide range of species - just not enough room.

Main species we attract are Blue Tits, Great Tits, Blackbird, Dunnock, Robin and Wren. Occasionally Linnet try to nest likewise Thrush.

How
Made a couple of boxes from scrap wood climbed a ladder and fastened them to walls and fences - bought a few roosting pockets and hid them in bushes and on fences
Reasons as above.

Why
We derive enjoyment from watching the birds in the garden and lending a helping hand. Putting up nest boxes and maintaining them (cleaning out) only takes a few minutes each year.

I put up nestboxes (or to be honest I get 'my man' to do it!) to give me the opportunity to watch birds more closley as they nest.To watch them bring all the nesting material they want into the boxes to make a comfortable home. To see the interaction between the pair as they are at the laying stage and then if all goes well to watch the parents toing and froing as they feen the chicks.

I await the day I first see the little chicks gapes pop into view as they hear a parent bird returning with the next meal and I see over the days them get stronger and larger. I am always amazed that nature planned things so well as I watch a parent fly off with those little white sacks as they tidy the nest. If I'm really lucky I get to see them fledge too although more than once Ihave missed that part!

I like many others on theis site am a keen (though novice) photographer and the more nest sites on my own 'patch' the more opportunities I have to photograph the nesting birds without disturbing them.

If we can give any bird a bit of help, be that by putting appropriate food out or giving them more choice of places to rear their young then we are happy to do so.

We first put up a next box when we lived in a flat and had no garden but we did have access to a wall and we were rewarded by blue tits using it. Let's face it there is very little effort or expense involved.

Good luck with your dissertation.

Gillian

Hi,

I guess my motivation is pretty much equally split between helping the birds and adding to my own enjoyment.

Here in the UK, you get the feeling that many of our bird species are under some pressure primarily due to changes in habitat and perhaps climate, so anything that we humans can do to give them a helping hand is a good thing. Along those lines, I have been feeding the birds and putting up nestboxes, as well as gardening in a wildlife-friendly way for quite a number of years.

All of this means that there are always some birds to be seen close to our house, which is payback-time for our efforts.

It is also a great thrill when you see a brood of chicks successfully raised.

So.... As far as I can see, everyone gains for very little effort!!

Feel free to contact me for more info if you wish, but this year I put up a total of 120 boxes - and it was certainly a hard slog. Had to do in when the snow was deep on the ground - couldn't get my car anywhere near the woodland and I needed to make a toboggan train to pull the boxes over 1 km. It was very hard slog (snow was a metre deep) and some days I managed only ten boxes per day! On top of this, in a country of relatively low income, this pleasure set me back near enough a month's salary. So to your questions!

Why are you motivated to put up nestboxes?
Simply put, there were two reasons. First I want the area as good as possible for wildlife and birds in particular. I bought the land with the sole purpose of creating a nature reserve. Second, the slog in late winter would be repaid many times over by the rewards of birds in 'my' boxes a few months later (the selfish reason - please me)

How did you get started putting up nestboxes?
Started with garden, had about 12 there and no more space (most occupied each year). Next step, but land and create the dream. Got a local Invalid Association to make them - no time to make so many myself and not so easy to buy them elsewhere in this country.

With all the other things you could be doing, why put up nestboxes?
It is true many other things are being done - excavating pools, planting trees, maintaining a grass cutting regime to ensure Corncrakes and Skylarks have fledged and flowers gone to seed before cutting. However, many of the big plans I have are going to cost a lot and really require a lot of effort - the feeding station and nestbox scheme are relatively easy, so no excuse as to why not.

And if you give me a really juicy quote, maybe I can work it into the dissetation!
Don't know if anything juicy here, but feel free.


PS 1. I have another 60 boxes in my garage waiting to go up this winter, plus two platforms for storks.

PS 2. Of the 120 boxes, about 70 were occupied (and another 30 or so by wasps ), not bad for the first year. Many were Pied Flycatchers, which bodes well for future years as all the young should take up occupancy when they return.

Dunno! I just like em ...Sorry!

Just to replace natural sites due to the felling of old/rottern trees that are being cut down, and to put back something for the pleasure i get from birding, oh and to compensate for my neighbours crap concrete/decked barren so called gardens.

p. s. you are definitely going to heaven JOS keep up the good work.

S. G.

Thanks for the replies so far...Jos, you're really going all out! What made you decide to purchase land for a nature reserve? For all you who enjoy watching the little birds grow up...why do you think that is so appealing?

From my side, I first put up a Northern Flicker box and some chickadee boxes as a kid in Oregon, USA. Starlings took over the flicker box, and every day after school I climbed up the apple tree to look inside. I "knew" I wasn't supposed to support these introduced birds, but had a hard time ripping out the nest.

Later, in Texas, I had Purple Martins (co-authored a UT-Press book on them with Robin Doughty), and enjoyed watching them, but didn't really enjoy the House Sparrow control involved. I know some people are really into the whole nest box management and monitoring exercise, but others just want some easy enjoyment. Seems to be a split here between active, livestock-type management of boxes and a more "simple pleasures" kind of experience--anyone care to comment on that? Thanks again for entertaining my questions.

birdchaser said:

Seems to be a split here between active, livestock-type management of boxes and a more "simple pleasures" kind of experience--anyone care to comment on that?

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The first is an extension of the second in my opinion - 120 boxes equals 120 simple pleasures, though of course also allows monitoring and recording of changes over the years

Why are you motivated to put up nestboxes?

like feeding birds I think it's just a way of helping out, am sure most birds that use my boxes would find somewhere else, but maybe not so safe from predators.

How did you get started putting up nestboxes?
made one at school (must have been aged 10/11) always had nest boxes at home but most put up in last 13 yrs at work.

With all the other things you could be doing, why put up nestboxes?

because it can make a big difference (has done with Barn Owls here) ,of course it means you know where the birds are, which gives you the chance to watch them, and to be honest I can think of few better things to do than watch a family of Barn Owls at one of my boxes o

The "helping out" theme comes up again and again...in the context of nestboxes, is it more about enjoyment or helping out? Or are the two combined to the degree that it isn't meaningful to talk about just one or the other by itself?

A mixture of both for me - they're not mutually exclusive.

Town gardens don't have a great number of opportunities for birds to find suitable nest sites. Nest boxes are an obvious way of helping out - providing safety and security whilst at the same time attracting birds to areas where they are easier to see.

Of course nest boxes are provided more in the line of helping out struggling speices when located in a small wood. Tree Sparrows and Pied Flycatchers are ones that immediately spring to mind along with boxes for Owls, Kestrels etc.

"Good luck with your dissertation."

We just had Rhubarb Crumble and custard for ours!!

Regards

Malky

in the context of nestboxes, is it more about enjoyment or helping out?

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for me helping out, I've got a box at home with a camera which is enjoyed, but most of my boxes are scattered around a large estate and only get checked a few times a year so can't say they give me any enjoyment as such.

I started putting up boxes for Tits etc, but most I put up now are like Ian says, there for birds which probably have a harder time finding natural sites.

For all of the reasons already mentioned, plus a couple of others.
I like designing my own nestboxes to try to attract specific species, and perhaps more importantly the challenge of the - 'where would I choose to nest if I was a Robin/ Blue Tit etc.' - aspect of siting the boxes.

Doesn't always work though, this year the Great Tits ignored a vacant box, and nested 19" down, in a broken drain pipe.

I would love to attract a Woodpecker, but i live on quite flat land with no or little trees and have never seen one.
Any ideas on attracting one?

Free said:

Dunno! I just like em ...Sorry!

Click to expand...

I apologise for this pointless above comment.


I do agree i get a kick out of it for two reasons one a bit selfish one not.

1. It gives me great pleasure to know that if only in a very small way i am helping birds to nest in safer places it makes me feel good.
I have a Hedgehog house aswell as they are so much in decline.

2. I can set up my tripod and take some great pictures or film of the nests and that gives me pleasure with no harm to the birds.

I love birds as to me the Variety is incredible, I have a mate who is an Insect lover and says the same thing.
I have watched D.Attenborough's 'The Birds' over and over and the variety of birds in their are stunning, i wish i had millions of pounds so i could go and see them all.
A world without them would be a silent and not so pleasurable i think.
As some of you might notice my posts are early as when i am on a shift pattern sometimes i get home and sit in my Garden with a cup of tea relaxing after a nights work and all i can hear is the cockerels from the farm and blackbirds first and then they all join in and its great and relaxing when the sun comes up and its dry offcoarse.Best time of the Day and the majority of you miss it.
For just one morning get up at about 4.30am and go in you garden and listen, i bet you will hear birds in the area you never even know existed there.

Its a GREAT time of the day! B