bird nesting boxes

[Marjoriew]

Not sure if this has been done before.
Grandson, 11, is mad keen on birdwatching. He puts food and cleans his birdtable regularly, etc.
Yesterday, in passing the market in town, he spotted a bloke selling bird nesting boxes he had made himself.
I paid £5 for it and when we got it home discovered it didn't have an opening for cleaning etc.
It also says not to get one with a perch on it because of predators.
Anyone got any ideas for a nice sturdy next box.

£5 is quite cheap. can you not use it 1 year and then maybe try and hammer lid off to clean and hammer back on afterwards - thought you only need to clean once a bird has nested.

as a child i think the ones my father made had perches - which did seem to affect birds. if its a pretty safe place anyway i would have thought ok - blackbird nested in climber on my fence and anything could have gone there

you know not to put them in sunny spots, near bird food tables?

My son is a member of RSPB wildlife explorers club and made 2 fab nesting boxes at half-term didnt cost us anything included in the £16.oo yearly member fee they meet up on similar projects once amonth and get a quarterely magazine.

Not tempted...fairly sure nest-box templates available on line to download.