Sparrow nests

[louise987]

Not been in our house long and there are sparrow nests along loads of the roof line, by the guttering. They are on both sides of the house, I'd estimate at least 6 families of them.

I have a DD who loves them and having moved from a city I too like hearing them and seeing them in the garden, but the practical side of me is worried what potential damage they are doing.
We've been in the loft and can't see any evidence of them in there.

Anyone have any experience of this? Can I leave them be or should I take some preventative measures once all the fledglings have gone? TIA!

Bump!

I have at least 1 nest in holes in the soffits, just above gutter & wonder the same. Friend who pointed them out said they would eat all the bugs & not to worry...but I do!

We’ve had them in our house for the past 13 years, I don’t think they’ve done any damage, but bumping for you.

Let them be. They face enough problems, without destroying another nest site.

The sparrow population has been devestated in the last 20 years, they shouldn’t cause any harm left alone

If your daughter likes them put out some decent fat balls in the garden, mine are just fledging at the moment and the sight of mum feeding the chubby babies on the fence is very sweet

They don’t do any damage at all, they just nest in the eaves. We have them, and recently needed some work done on the roof and the barge boards. I made sure the builders left the gap in place to ensure room for the sparrows.

When they've gone in the winter you could tidy away the nests and install a sparrow terrace multiple nest box so they're neater when they come back next year?

I've had sparrows nesting for years and have not had any issues. You might just want to clear out the guttering in the autumn but I love watching them get bigger, fledge, then feed in the garden!

You can get terraced nest boxes from the RSPB, if you want them to be tidier. shopping.rspb.org.uk/garden-bird-nest-boxes/rspb-sparrow-terrace-nest-box.html?ClickType=Image&ListType=Category&ListName=Garden+bird+nest+boxes

They are pretty robust, and when they have nested, you can clear it out and put fresh straw/hay in so you will not be bothered by woolly bears and such like.

Phew! I love having them and like others have said, seeing the heads of the little babies peaking over the top is really cute!
I'll leave them be. Good thinking on the building Work thou, I'm getting some work done on the fascia/barge boards and don't want to lose the space for them to nest next year!

Yes. You can’t work on the barge boards etc until they have finished nesting anyway (against the law to disturb a nest ) , so you can ask the builders to make sure they leave nesting space, and then you’ll have them back year after year. I love their shouty calls too. I’ve just been in the garden feeding mine some mealworms. They all come when I whistle !