Open-fronted nest boxes suit a particular set of birds, and if you have robins or wrens in the garden, this is the box to put up for them.
Robins, wrens, spotted flycatchers and pied wagtails all nest in cavities of a kind, but none of them will use a standard hole-fronted box. They want a low, open front and a ledge with some depth to it; a 32mm entrance hole is no use to them at all. This box gives them what they are actually looking for: a recessed front, a floor with enough room for a full brood, and no perch, because a perch serves the predator rather than the occupant.
Where you site it will matter more than anything else. Open-fronted nest boxes need cover around them: ivy on a wall, a dense hedge, a climber on a shed or outbuilding. Below two metres, screened from direct view, facing away from the afternoon sun and the prevailing wet. A box mounted in the open on a bare trunk will sit empty for a long time, and that is the mistake most people make when they wonder why nothing has moved in.
The roof is sloped and the floor drains, so a wet spring does not become a problem inside. It opens for cleaning, which is worth doing properly each year.
- Open-fronted box for robins, wrens, spotted flycatchers and pied wagtails
- Not suited to sparrows or blue tits, which require a hole-fronted box
- Sloped roof and drainage holes to keep the floor dry through spring
- Floor area sized for a full nest and brood
- Rear fixings for wall, fence, shed or trunk
- Opens for annual cleaning; clear the old nest between October and January
Put it up in autumn if you can. Birds prospect for nest sites over winter, and a box that has already weathered by February will be taken far sooner than one that went up in March.
