Advice needed for my garden's blue tits and their nestbox (1 Viewer)

A pair of blue tits have been checking out my nest box every spring for the last couple of years but never nested. If you have any advice for me please tell me, it would be lovley to have them nest and not to see the neighbors' bird's offspring gourging all my seed, that just makes me jealous.
Thanks!

Crazy Birder said:

A pair of blue tits have been checking out my nest box every spring for the last cuple of years but never nested. If you have any advice for me please tell me, it would be lovley to have them nest and not to see the neighbors' bird's offspring gourging all my seed, that just makes me jealous.
Thanks!

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I know the feeling. I built a 'special' nestbox for Blue Tits. The box was designed to allow for nestbox photography without disturbance and I had to wait six years before Blue Tits choose to use it for the first time, but it was worth the wait. Then they used it for four years before going elsewhere. The next year a pair of Great Tits moved in, and then last year nothing even looked into the box - Just to annoy me the local Blue Tits moved into one of my House Sparrow boxes instead! They ignored it again this time, but the Great Tits have moved instead, so I'm happy.

The big problem (if that is what it is) is that according to the BTO nestbox guide a Blue Tit territory can extend to more than 10 suburban gardens. If everyone gets the habit of putting up boxes, it's great for the birds, but a lot of people are going to be disappointed. I suffered withdrawal symptoms last year!

All you can do is ensure that your box(es) follow the general guidlines as to avoiding direct sunshine in the afternoons, positioned away from feeding areas etc. Is the entrance big enough to allow Great Tits to get in (28mm), increasing the chance of the box being used?

Cheers, and good luck - there is still time for a bird to use the box this Spring

Thanks David The box is right next to my feeders, and i was worrying that it was tilted ever so slightly towards the sun. I have never seen anything other than Blue Tits looking in it.

Sight the box facing south east so it catches the early morning sun and also put a few dry leaves in the box. :t:

Like David says, I've heard Blue Tits are highly territorial. But last year two seperate pairs of Blue Tits nested in two nestboxes only seperated by a garage wall - a few feet away! And there's plenty of choice, altogether seven or eight nestboxes that would be suitable for Blue Tits around my house and garden!

This year I'm being disappointed too! Every single nestbox has been ignored, I'm not sure if the BTs are even nesting anywhere! I hope they're just starting late, I'd be really upset if I had 0/8 nestboxes occupied this breeding season!

themexican said:

Sight the box facing south east so it catches the early morning sun and also put a few dry leaves in the box. :t:

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I thought that was what they were being put off by! I was going to place it in a different direction, so thanks! I thought they didn't like the heat beaming down on the chicks so thanks for that. I have my hopes higher now but now I'm concerned about them being put off by the feeders right below them as David said!
It is hard. I just wish they would nest but you lot are helping out alot, so thanks to all of you! :clap:

Hi all,

We've had blue tits checking out our nest box for some time now. I'm just hoping that soon we'll see the parents dashing back and forth to feed their little ones. Lovely!

:flyaway:

I bought a sparrow box with three apartments and three entrances at a christmas fair 2 or 3 years ago and only 2 months later after attaching it to the wall under my window (they seem to know even though all my family love birds i have the most interest and they reward me by nesting under my window) i had a blue tit pair examining my sparrowboxes who later choose to nest there and successfully raised and fledged 2 or 3 chicks. Now they nest there annually but funnily enough the sparrows have never even touched the boxes. It`s funny though as other nest boxes we assembled years ago have never been touched but a 3 month old nest box was occupied so suddenly.