Put up a nest box and watch it
A friend has invited you to do this with them.
The size of the entrance hole decides which species can move in, so choosing a box is a way of choosing your tenants. Once a pair settles you can follow the whole sequence from nest building to fledging, and some birds use the same box to roost through winter.
GentleUnder £100 / $130MonthsOutdoorsOn your ownUK and USPut it up by late winter and watch through spring
How to start
- Read the BTO's guide to putting up a nest box in the UK, or use NestWatch's Right Bird, Right House tool in the US.
- Buy or build a box with the right hole size for the birds near you.
- Fix it out of reach of cats, sheltered from wind, rain and strong sun, with a clear flight path to the entrance.
Where to go
- BTO (British Trust for Ornithology), putting up a nest box UK
- NestWatch, all about birdhouses (Cornell Lab of Ornithology) US
We opened these links on 7 October 2026 and found them to be what we say. Dates, places and prices are on the official page, where they stay up to date.
Plan this
Pick a day, or a month, and we will set out how to get ready, step by step, with a date and a reason for each. Projects run over months and stall without a rhythm, so the plan sets milestones you can see.
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