Dear Parrots magazine,
‘Natural’ entrance holes
I recently visited a bird show and was looking to buy new nest boxes. There were several traders selling wooden boxes, but I was very surprised to see some that had metal rims around the entrance holes, presumably to stop the birds from chewing away at them. But surely, to chew their way into a nest hole, as in the wild, is a natural process, for Mother Nature doesn’t necessarily produce nest holes in trees to the exact dimensions a particular species may want.
With my nest boxes, I nearly always nail some off cuts of untreated wood to partly cover the man-made entrance hole, so the birds will have to chew their way in, and this has proved very successful. So, to trim the hole with a metal rim, in my opinion, should never be done.Bill Thornton, Ayrshire