Willow Tit Nest Box Project

Birds on the Brink is pleased to award a grant to help with a Willow Tit nest box scheme coordinated by the Friends of Lyme and Wood Country Park. Located between Liverpool to the west and Manchester to the east, the site was previously a coal mining area, then a landfill. Despite its unpromising ancestry it is now a haven for wildlife, and a site where people can engage with nature.

Lyme and Wood Country Park. Photo ©Tracey Peacock/Friends of Lyme and Wood Country Park.

 The ‘Friends’ volunteers help maintain the park, and in an attempt to enhance the site’s biodiversity they take a particular interest in the area’s Willow Tit population, which appears to be declining.

In the latest Birds of Conservation Concern report, Willow Tit Parus montanus is Red Listed, the highest level of concern, because of recent dramatic declines in the population. Currently there are estimated to be just 2,750 pairs in the UK. ©Paul Sterry/Nature Photographers Ltd.

 Among the threats to the species are habitat loss and degradation and chief among the factors adversely impacting it is lack of nest sites. The Willow Tit is a fussy nester, excavating a new nest cavity in a dead tree each year. Their requirements can be satisfied using specially designed nest boxes filled with wood shavings and sawdust. The BOTB grant will help fund a project to build, install and monitor these Willow Tit homes-from-home.

A ‘natural’ nesting site for a Willow Tit is a freshly-excavated cavity in a standing dead timber. ©Frank Blackburn/Nature Photographers Ltd.