Wildlife in My Backyard: Part 4. Nest Boxes and Shelves

Most backyards lack dead trees, also called snags, or damaged live trees, which are needed by cavity nesting birds. But many species can be enticed to nest in your backyard by the placement of nest boxes. In this article I will discuss ways of attracting cavity nesters into nest boxes and how to attract some tree nesters to nest on shelves erected against a building. For those of you who live next to lakes and marshes, I have also included diagrams for the construction of Wood Duck nesting boxes. Nest boxes have become increasingly important due to loss of suitable nesting habitat, and are now critical to some birds’ survival. For example, both the Eastern Bluebird and Wood Duck had severely declined, mainly due to suitable nest site loss, and both of these species have increased once again due to nest boxes.1 Many of the boxes I describe can be either purchased at nature and garden centres, or built by yourself. The best time to start erecting nest boxes is from late winter into early April. One of the joys of installing nest boxes in your yard is watching the birds select the box, start collecting nesting materia, watching the parents raise and feed the young, and hopefully seeing the young birds’ first flight.