Wild Things: It's time for birds to go courting

YOU may have noticed a subtle change in the behaviour of your garden bird visitors recently.

The birds that live alongside us and in the wider countryside have noted the expanded day length and their thoughts are turning to... love. Or whatever passes for it in the bird world.

Exploring a nest box Picture: Donna Zimmer

On New Year's Day, I noticed a couple of great spotted woodpeckers indulging in tentative pairing-up behaviour by tree-drumming messages to each other.

These gestures are intended to indicate the availability of either partner before serious nest-hole drilling with their powerful bills begins.

I've also seen birds carrying nest material already. Early breeders such as pigeons and crows will be settling down in new homes while robins, tits and other familiar garden birds are setting up territories and seeking out potential nest sites within.

Small birds mostly live for no more than two or three years. Their primary function is to breed and produce a new generation. So quickly locating a partner and then a site to reproduce is vital.

You can help birds do this. The British Trust for Ornithology's National Nestbox Week encourages people to provide birds with nestboxes.

It is no coincidence Nestbox Week starts on St Valentine's Day, February 14, when love will be uppermost in most people's minds.

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The idea is to put out nestboxes during this period, which may save birds time and energy locating nest sites and building nests.

You can build your own boxes from wood or splash out on ready-made boxes from stronger substances like woodcrete. Details about making or buying boxes can be found on the BTO website or the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds website.

There are a few things to keep in mind. You will need to know which birds visit your garden and which might visit with a bit of encouragement. Don't put up a duck nestbox in your garden if you are a long way from water. When the ducklings hatch they will be exposed to greater danger the further they must walk to water.

A perfect fit Picture: Donna Zimmer

Also, different birds like different-style boxes. House sparrows, for example, nest communally. Their ideal box includes maybe half a dozen holes in a row so several can nest together. Tits also like boxes with holes but robins have different needs. They prefer open-fronted nestboxes. Some have settled for discarded kettles or pockets of jackets left in open sheds.

Don't put a box on a wall exposed to the hottest mid-day sun or the chicks might fry. Be aware of other dangers like great spotted woodpeckers trying to drill through the box to reach chicks for food for their own young. Use very strong wood or reinforce vulnerable parts of the box with metal if woodpeckers visit your garden.

If you find nestbox building absorbing you can expand your activities. You can't put more than a couple of boxes in your garden or the adult birds will spend all their time chasing rivals away when they should be feeding young. But you can build and donate boxes to such places as schools, hospitals or care homes. Local RSPB groups welcome donations of boxes they can sell to raise funds.

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Remember boxes may not be occupied immediately. It may take several years for birds to move in. Or it could happen in a few days. If nothing happens for a few years, try re-siting the box.

If you get it right, the parent birds will provide a source of amusement and wonder as they go about raising their young so close to your own bedroom.

For details on how to create nestboxes and the best places to site them, go to nestboxweek.com