The nestboxes, donated by schoolchildren from Bar Hill Primary School, will provide homes for nature at Niab’s recently renovated offices and laboratories in Histon, just outside Cambridge.
The expansion of Niab’s bird nestbox numbers has come at the perfect time. The current boxes sited at Park Farm have all been successfully occupied over the past two years by Blue and Great Tits.
It is hoped that more boxes will also lead to House Sparrows, a bird of the highest conservation concern, nesting once again at Niab.
The materials for the boxes were initially provided by Bar Hill Parish Council, as they were running a competition for the best decorated nestbox at the local primary school.
With several boxes looking for new homes, one of the schoolchildren, Megan, thought Niab would be a good place for them: ‘When I visited my Mum, who works for Niab, I was really lucky to see some baby Blue Tits in a nestbox. After we had finished our improving the environment project at school, I asked if Niab could take some of the nestboxes we had painted.’
‘I’m excited to see which birds have a family in my nestbox, but I would really like to see Blue Tits nesting in it.’
Kevin Middleton, Niab Communications Officer, monitors Niab’s existing nestboxes said: ‘We’re grateful to Bar Hill Primary School for donating these new nestboxes to Niab, which means we can increase the homes available for birds around our offices. We’ll keep an eye on these nestboxes and will let the schoolchildren know when birds start showing interest in their boxes.’
‘It’s always exciting to lift the lid on a nestbox to see what’s inside – whether that’s several gleaming eggs or big gaping mouths of tiny chicks.’‘In addition to our traditional nestboxes for smaller birds, we also have three bigger nestboxes situated around our trial grounds between Cambridge and Histon. These were all occupied in 2024 resulting in four Kestrel and seven Barn Owls chicks fledging. We’ll continue helping these birds make their homes on Niab grounds and hope for a successful breeding season in 2025.’