Forum home› Plants
This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.

swift robin boxes

berardeberarde Posts: 147
in Plants
I have seen swifts are somewhat struggling so plan to make a swift box and also I have a robin box.
I read that the swifts need a clear entry so that they can swoop down and then up to the box to scrub off speed. The back of my house is south/west so I think too hot, the side may not have enough clear entry to swoop down although there is only a wall about 3 feet so maybe this is ok. Probably best at the front but I'm not sure where to site it as they make a lot of droppings. Maybe over the bay window and just hose off the droppings when the have gone?

I read also that robins like a clear view, but I can't see how to avoid cats and again the back of the house may be too hot. the side is clear and I don't see cats getting up the wall, but maybe then it will be too high.

I have put a tit box behind a thick cotoneaster, but I still wonder as I had a blackbird build a nest behind a dense firethorn but a cat still got to the nest and took the babies.

Appreciate advice
«1

Posts

  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    edited January 2022
    I'd flag that it can be pretty difficult to entice swifts down to nest if they are not nesting close by already. Action for swifts suggest playing swift calls in April -  June to bring them down, calls which may come with its own complications (the calls need to be pretty loud). My neighbours and I have had swift boxes up for about five years and had no sniff of a swift. Blue tits are currently roosting in them.

    It is best to avoid a south-facing position as the boxes can get too hot, and it does need to have nothing blocking a long, free swoop - no trees or buildings. Many swift boxes are designed to prevent ingress by birds like magpies, that predate swifts. Action for swifts offer free box design pdfs on their website.

    It might be worth finding out from oldsters which birds used to mass in the area and are no long there. Other birds don't need such a long, clear run in and out, so maybe the building side might be more suitable for their nest boxes.


     - -
    I think you could put some robins' nests in the hedging. They like to be around head height I believe. I imagine sparrows would enjoy it under your eaves on the house side.
  • Silver surferSilver surfer Posts: 4,719
    edited January 2022
    In old garden my other half made several wooden bird boxes.
    Woodpeckers /grey squirrels ruined them by making holes huge./in the bottom even, killed the baby birds.
    So instead we invested in the woodcrete boxes.
    They are expensive, but long lasting. 
    I can recommend them.
    Birds loved nesting safely in them. Bats too.
    Insulated so can be put in sunny positions.
    Put up 2 x house martin nesting cups, but never attracted house martins just 30 plus  wrens squashed in for warmth.
    See...
    https://www.wildcare.co.uk/wildlife-nest-boxes/bird-boxes/woodstone-woodcrete-bird-box.html?product_list_limit=72&product_list_order=price
    A friend who was a qualified bird ringer checked all the boxes each spring. Recorded, ringed /measured the babies...sometimes we found not birds but bats...see below








    Perthshire. SCOTLAND .
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    edited January 2022
    @Silver surfer  how wonderful!

    Woodcrete is create, but do be aware that it's very heavy - so postage is more and you need some very strong way to secure it, and high up, if the nest box is large.
  • SkandiSkandi Posts: 1,723
    We don't have swifts but we do have a lot of swallows, and they nest inside the barn, they did in my old barn as well, they are quite happy to fly through tiny holes in windows or even the bottom of doors to get in, then they'll turn several 90 degree turns to get to their preferred nesting site. getting in and out of the barn became an game of chicken, would you duck or would they swerve.  since their prefered nesting site is less than 2m from the ground it does let you get some wonderful photos, note the bee that has just been deposited in the far right's gob.

  • Silver surferSilver surfer Posts: 4,719
    edited January 2022
    Fire said:
    @Silver surfer  how wonderful!

    Woodcrete is create, but do be aware that it's very heavy - so postage is more and you need some very strong way to secure it, and high up, if the nest box is large.
    As boxes are vermin proof there is no need to put them too high up.
    Remember that they will need to be cleaned out after nesting is finished.
    Another co that sells them.

    https://www.livingwithbirds.com/nest-boxes/schwegler-woodcrete-favourites

    Quote..."Woodcrete (or Woodstone) bird nest boxes are a mix of concrete and wood. This means the unit lasts for years and has more insulation than just wood, which in turn protects the birds from extremes levels of heat and cold. Entrance holes and brood cavity spaces to suit different species' needs."
    Perthshire. SCOTLAND .
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    You can fit metal plates on the nestboxes to prevent woodpeckers etc robbing the nests 

    see here https://www.green-feathers.co.uk/products/bird-box-stainless-steel-cover-plate

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • Silver surferSilver surfer Posts: 4,719
    Dovefromabove said:
    You can fit metal plates on the nestboxes to prevent woodpeckers etc robbing the nests 

    see here https://www.green-feathers.co.uk/products/bird-box-stainless-steel-cover-plate
    Did that.
    Grey squirrels /woodpeckers then made holes in the bottom.
    Boxes then useless.
    Hence changing to the woodcrete ones.
    Instead of flowers/chocs on Valentines day we would buy 2 woodcrete nest boxes....did this for several years. By the time we moved we had 50. Yes expensive but they stood the test of time. Brought 3 with us and they are still perfect.
    Perthshire. SCOTLAND .
  • SherwoodArrowSherwoodArrow Posts: 284
    edited January 2022
    I have swifts nesting in my roof, they have come back every year for about 20 years.
    They nest in the roof, under the roof tiles, above the guttering. They go in the corner of the house, at the back which looks east.
    I have seen them in other people’s houses going in the roof. The gap between the house is about 3/3.5 meters, but with a run up around a corner It’s not a nest box it’s just the roof so the birds chose the more awkward site themselves.
    berarde said:
    I have seen swifts are somewhat struggling so plan to make a swift box and also I have a robin box.

    Probably best at the front but I'm not sure where to site it as they make a lot of droppings. Maybe over the bay window and just hose off the droppings when the have gone?
    Swifts don’t make a mess anywhere on the ground.
    We hardly know they are there, we like to sit in the summer, on warm evenings to watch for the parent going in and out feeding. 
    Swallows and House Martins that nest under the eaves of the roof may make more of a mess. ( I wouldn’t know as I don’t get these.)

    From you pictures I’d put the box or boxes (they like a community) up anywhere along the front of your house 🙂.

    Do you get swifts in your area? If they nest close by you will hear the ‘screams’ they make. If they are in your area you can as @Fire says play the scream to entice them down. It is loud but it’s only as loud as the birds are when they wizz past.
    I’ve always thought that playing the scream would only work if they were around to hear it? In my area, from the end of April, there are big groups of Swifts flying about. If you know they are about maybe it would work?

    Nottinghamshire.
    Failure is always an option.

  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    edited January 2022
    If they are in your area you can as @Fire says play the scream to entice them down. It is loud but it’s only as loud as the birds are when they wizz past.

    I have only manage to find swift sound files on a short loop. I live in a kind of terraced valley where normal level conversation echoes across the gardens and you can hear a whisper ten gardens over. Short swift calls looping for hours would drive me crazy, never mind the neighbours. Last spring I did hang a speaker outside my bedroom window, under the nest boxes. I set up a plug timer. They say to play very early in the morning and at dusk. But the file sounds quality isn't great and the whole thing just too loud for me. It sounded nothing like real swifts to the human ear.

    We do get swifts flying very high overhead. Apparently my area was thronged with swifts in the 50s and 60s, but now I never see them swoop down to feed one our streets. Three local areas higher in elevation do have busy swift levels.

    It would be such a triumph to entice them back to my place.

     - - -

    Ther are sound files on Youtube. You can buy a file from Action for Swifts or you can by a little device with a speaker.

    http://actionforswifts.blogspot.com/p/attraction-call-systems-for-swifts.html




  • SherwoodArrowSherwoodArrow Posts: 284
    edited January 2022
    Fire said:I have only manage to find swift sound files on a short loop. 

    We do get swifts flying very high overhead. Apparently my area was thronged with swifts in the 50s and 60s, but now I never see them swoop down to feed one our streets. Three local areas higher in elevation do have busy swift levels.

    It would be such a triumph to entice them back to my place.

    Swifts feed high in the sky, they only come down to house hight when they are nesting in the area.

    I remember seeing something on Springwatch that in a meter square straight above ‘your’ head is about 8 sheep’s worth of bugs and flies. 🙂

    I wonder if one of the swift conservation groups has a longer better quality sound file that you could use?

    I love to watch and listen to the swifts, I’ve even had to rescue a few grounded birds and one that mistook my neighbours open bedroom window as a new nest site. Obviously I don’t wish the birds harm by being grounded but I do quite like to hold/lift them up so they are able to fly again 🙂.

    They are amazing birds, I’m always amazed by the fact that once they fledge they don’t touch the ground again for 4 years or until they breed themselves. 

    ————————
    I’m sorry If I sound a bit preachy I just have a soft spot for Swifts 😁.
    Nottinghamshire.
    Failure is always an option.

Sign In or Register to comment.