We were approached by Sarah Moss in Lyndhurst last year to install some Swift boxes on her housing estate where the number of urban birds generally has declined as a result of the over-cladding of the original timber fascias and soffits with uPVC.
She later asked us to install some boxes for Starlings as she wanted to try and reverse the decline of these magical birds, so early this year twelve Starling boxes were installed before 2 March. These boxes are the same size as the Model 30 Swift boxes but with a larger D-shaped hole at the top of the sloping front. They can be used by Starlings as well as House Sparrows and Swifts.
How have they done so far? Well by the end of May, at least six broods of Starlings have fledged from the boxes, four have not been used and the outcome in the other two is not known. Three boxes have now been relocated to another site where the mess that the birds cause is less of a problem to the home-owner. This is a factor that should be born in mind when positioning these Starling boxes as they can sometimes be very messy so remember – location, location location! And there seemed to be a preference to avoiding using boxes positioned on a south face (though the sample is small). Full marks to Sarah for funding all these boxes and helping to save our Urban Birds.
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