I have two nestboxes on one wall, with a distance of about 12 feet between the two boxes. Only one of the boxes has a camera in it. Should I block the hole of the box without a camera to encourage the birds to nest in the one with a camera? When do tits start looking for a nesting box.?
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What distance to have between bird boxes (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter lyndijon
- Start date
KnockerNorton
Well-known member
Blcoking the hole would definately increase your chances. Or why not just move the box? They should be at least 50 ft apart to limit the chances of them being in the same territory. Maybe give it to a neighbour several doors down? Or put it on the other side of the house? There are lots of exceptions of birds nesting closer, but moving/blocking it would up your chances. Even if you have a Great Tit in one and Blue tit in the other, they could still interfere with each other at just 12ft apart.
Tits start inspecting holes this month, but wont start building til the end of March at the earliest, and more likely early-mid-April.
Tits start inspecting holes this month, but wont start building til the end of March at the earliest, and more likely early-mid-April.
Hi there lyndijon and hello again Poecile 
I've had exactly this same problem. My Nestboxes are more like 20ft apart but I too have one with and one without a camera. If you read my post http://blog.shirlsgardenwatch.co.uk/2008/03/arch-nest-box.html you will see what happened when I blocked off my non camera box.
We have one pair visiting both Nestbxes and you can read the latest here http://blog.shirlsgardenwatch.co.uk/2008/04/who-makes-decisions.html. I really don't know which way it will finally go. The female likes the camera box but the male seems to be bossing her to the other.
Ah... they will probably use the one without the camera. This is only our second year with the camera box and last year after a week all our eight chicks died. It would have been nice to see a successful brood fledge from our camera box :-D
Fingers crossed - good luck with yours :-D
I've had exactly this same problem. My Nestboxes are more like 20ft apart but I too have one with and one without a camera. If you read my post http://blog.shirlsgardenwatch.co.uk/2008/03/arch-nest-box.html you will see what happened when I blocked off my non camera box.
We have one pair visiting both Nestbxes and you can read the latest here http://blog.shirlsgardenwatch.co.uk/2008/04/who-makes-decisions.html. I really don't know which way it will finally go. The female likes the camera box but the male seems to be bossing her to the other.
Ah... they will probably use the one without the camera. This is only our second year with the camera box and last year after a week all our eight chicks died. It would have been nice to see a successful brood fledge from our camera box :-D
Fingers crossed - good luck with yours :-D
KnockerNorton
Well-known member
Hi there lyndijon and hello again Poecile
I've had exactly this same problem. My Nestboxes are more like 20ft apart but I too have one with and one without a camera. If you read my post http://blog.shirlsgardenwatch.co.uk/2008/03/arch-nest-box.html you will see what happened when I blocked off my non camera box.
We have one pair visiting both Nestbxes and you can read the latest here http://blog.shirlsgardenwatch.co.uk/2008/04/who-makes-decisions.html. I really don't know which way it will finally go. The female likes the camera box but the male seems to be bossing her to the other.
Ah... they will probably use the one without the camera. This is only our second year with the camera box and last year after a week all our eight chicks died. It would have been nice to see a successful brood fledge from our camera box :-D
Fingers crossed - good luck with yours :-D
Females do the choosing when it comes to the nest site, and the male has little or no say in it.
DavidJJones
Garden Bird & Bug Watcher
I've noticed that while the first visits I record Great Tits making to my box at the beginning of the year are by the female, it's interesting to note that from then on until nesting is about to start just about every visit starts off with the male inspecting first, often spending time outside, pecking at the entrance and calling before going in. When the female arrives soon afterwards he leaves the box immediately after she enters, and before she carries out a much longer inspection.
Watching the Great Tits preparing to nest, that sequence was a regular event, and was only broken days before nest building commenced as the female started to make longer and longer visits without the male checking out the box first.
Since nest building got under way five days ago I've only seen the male in the box once, although he does look in from time to time, usually after calling loudly from a nearby tree.
