House Martin ( Delichon urbicum )
We have House Martins using two of our three House Martin nest boxes. This one has older young than the other. How do I know? Well this pair are feeding by hanging on the outside of the box and popping food into open mouths. The other is still going into the box to feed the young. How do I know it is feeding young? Two ways firstly we can hear them calling for food and secondly the parents are coming and going much more often than would be the case if one was on eggs and the other was feeding.
We use nest boxes for a number of reasons. Firstly being on the side of the house that faces the weather their mud nests rarely survived from one season to the next. A nest box saves them 10 days building time. Also positioning the nest boxes ourselves means we choose where the droppings fall rather than the birds doing so. When we had natural nests one year one was right above the back door.
House Martins have had a 44% population fall this millenium. Reasons for the decline aren't clear. As always they are probably complex. The decline in flying insect numbers may be part of it. Those of you old enough remember what your car windscreens were like two or three decades ago will know what I mean. Another reason, in my opinion is modern housing doesn't necessarily make good nest sites and the occupants aren't prepared to put up with the disadvantages of nesting birds when they are good nest sites.
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