Nesting territory

[parsleythelion]

which birds can nest within the same territory without getting on each other's wick competing for food? i'm putting up some nestboxes on an allotment site.

i will not be catering for pigeons of any variety, so exclude them from your answers (if there are any).

[Mungo]

I'm a bit of a novice, but I'm sure this will bump it for someone in-the-know to answer

[parsleythelion]

i think it was from a company that sold nest boxes i read that great tits and blue tits could share a territory but i find that hard to believe as they'll both be after the same size/type of insects surely? maybe the company was trying to shift more boxes. i build my own anyway, i enjoy it.

[Matt_IOM]

Never had any joy with nest boxes myself, if they're too near gardens/activity/feeding areas then Tits tend to ignore them - I think that's why I've had no luck. House Sparrows like nesting together though, and they will nest happily near humans. Plus they need a little help given their population decline. You could try looking at a Sparrow Terrace (it's like a long nest box with 3 or 4 entrance holes).

Best wishes,
Matt.

[parsleythelion]

i built a sparrow terrace - blue tits nested in the middle box. i've moved on from the garden, now i'm putting several nest boxes up at my allotment site. there's a wood and some grassland and about 60 plots being worked; it must be the size of 2 or 3 football pitches. i'm wondering how many nest boxes i can pop up and for which birds. i know we have robins and great tits and wrens i'm pondering whether these will be competing with each other.

[poschiavanus]

Yes territories of different species of birds overlap: they might compete for some food items or nest locations, but there are enough different niches to sustain several species.

In the past a lot of research was carried out mapping bird territories all over Britain (the Common Bird Census, organised by the BTO), but this ceased in 2000. I struggled to find any plots from this technique on-line, but finally came up with : St Cleer General Cemetery - StCleer Dissenters Chapel. You can look at territories for different species in this location for 2007.

HTH,

posch