National Nest Box Week runs from 14 to 21 is organised by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO).

BTO are encouraging people who have never built a nest box before, to have a go this year.  Or, if you haven’t got the time, it’s easy to buy a good one. Go on, take part for Britain’s birds.”

Sponsors Jacobi Jayne & Company have produced a new information booklet, which tells you how to make a nest box for garden and explains what happens inside nest boxes box between March and June. This is available from Jacobi Jayne & Co, Freepost 1155, Herne Bay, Kent, CT6 7BR or call Freephone 0800 072 0130, or request the free information pack from the BTO web site - www.bto.org/nnbw/info_pack.htm.

A nest box can be made out of a plank (www.bto.org/nnbw/make.htm) and are

incredibly easy to build or buy and can make a huge difference to the survival of garden birds. Boxes are favoured by blue tits but depending on where you are in the country get all manner of species could move in. More than 60 species of birds have been recorded using nest boxes. Most commonly, blue and great tits, house sparrows and starlings will use the typical round hole design, while robins, blackbirds and spotted flycatchers prefer open-fronted boxes.

People are also being encouraged to register their nest boxes on the BTO’s web site www.bto.org and to report on which species move in and whether they breed successfully. This will be the third year of this Nest Box Challenge the BTO are interested to see how the 2009 breeding season progresses after the unseasonably wet weather in the previous two summers.

People who register their nest boxes on the BTO web pages will be asked to provide simple information about their gardens and nest boxes. Then, as the season progresses, each observer will be able to report on which species move in and whether their birds breed successfully. The BTO are interested to see whether boxes are more successful in different types of gardens, whether different species use nest boxes in different areas of the country, how much later nest building starts in the north of Britain than in the south etc.

Last year the first report of blue tit eggs in the UK was in Carmarthenshire on 8 April, but birds such as blackbirds and robins may start even earlier. Let’s see if we can keep that record up!