Bird box help please

[SpottyBumPony]

We recently moved to a house with a garden that has established plants and small trees. I'd like to encourage birds in so have left the hips on the roses and put up some feeders which are being used.

I'd like to put up some Bird boxes but I don't know what type to use. It's a south facing garden, the wall at the bottom has trees and plants in front but is spacious enough to flying in. So it would be protected by foliage and shaded, we are in Hampshire in a city if that matters!

There are lots of bold, urban foxes around. We have two older cats who were house cats for a long time so don't 'know' about hunting

Mostly in my house, I use the wooden bird boxes. This type of box is very safe and bird also easily living their life very comfortable. I enjoying that birds nesting, hatching eggs, feeding foods to its chicks. Every thins is amazing.

Rsbp has good guidance for the right kind of box - you have to get height and hole size and orientation right for each type of bird.

Have a good look at the birds on your feeders to establish what kind of visitors you're getting and then research what they like.

Most important is to site the boxes where it's harder for predators to access and as you said, to give cover and shade in a south facing garden particularly. We get great spotted woodpeckers so make sure we either have boxes with protection around the hole, or buy the metal plates to fix on ourselves.

House Sparrows and some other birds will be happy with boxes close together, other birds are more territorial and less sociable and need their own space.

Come spring consider putting out nesting materials, you can leave some in the bushes, or even in one of the feeders.

Lastly, with the best will in the world, you can't govern what they'll do. We have an open fronted robin box that's been home to 4 different species We've also got boxes that draw a blank.

I find my most popular box is a bog standard Wilkos one on a north-facing house wall.
Gets used pretty much every year.

One thing I will say is not to get any with metal roofs. Obviously the temperatures in them can become dangerous.

these ones...

www.habi-sabi.com/

The RSPB has instructions for making your own, and on siting them.

www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/advice/how-you-can-help-birds/nestboxes/nestboxes-for-small-birds/making-and-placing-a-bird-box/

And of course also stocks lots of ready made ones

shopping.rspb.org.uk/INTERSHOP/web/WFS/RSPB-rspbUK-Site/en_GB/b2c-responsive/GBP/ViewParametricSearch-SimpleOfferSearch