Should I offer bird food throughout the year or just in springtime?
Advice not to feed birds during the breeding season was based on the notion that parents might provision their chicks with inappropriate foods. However, most garden birds feed their chicks on invertebrates and rarely bring ‘supplementary’ food to the nest. By providing food yearround, you can support the adults during the breeding season, newly independent young in late summer and the whole population during the difficult winter months.
The RSPB’s downloadable plan gives measurements for a small and a large box. For starlings and great spotted woodpeckers, use the dimensions for the large box; all the others need the small one:
Fleas and parasites reside in the nests of most birds and remain to infest chicks that hatch the following year. When the breeding season is over, old nests can be removed and the box cleaned out, as long as the nesting residents have stopped using the box. Bird-protection law permits the cleaning out of nests between 1 August and 31 January. If dead eggs are found in the nestbox, they must be destroyed during this period only. It is quite normal for a few eggs to fail to hatch, or for some young to die. For example, blue and great tits lay up to 14 eggs to allow for such losses. Wear surgical gloves and a dust mask when cleaning out nestboxes. Use boiling water to kill any parasites, avoid using insecticides and flea powders and let the box dry out thoroughly before replacing the lid. A handful of clean hay or wood shavings placed in the box (once dry) after cleaning may entice wood mice to hibernate there, or birds may use it as a roost site.