The house martin nest boxes are constructed in wood stone for extra-long life. With permanent mounting on a wooden frame, it will not fall in dry weather, smooth walls or from vibration. Being self-contained and ready for use, house martins can occupy the nests immediately on return from their winter stay in Africa.
House martins are popular birds and folklore says if they nest on your house it is a sign of good luck. They feed on flying insects and prefer to hunt in the immediate vicinity of their nesting sites. After breeding they will follow the warm weather and airborne insects southwards in early autumn, eventually overwintering in Africa.
House martins arrive in the UK during April and the first priority is finding a suitable nesting site where they form their nest bowls out of mud and saliva under the eaves of houses and outbuildings. House martins readily adopt artificial nest boxes when suitably sited, tucked under the eaves of a house out of prevailing winds.
It is increasingly difficult for house martins to find suitable nest-building material in our modern world. Permanent puddles with soft muddy edges are in short supply and the ones they do find, are often of poor quality. Additional problems include the use of UPVC on buildings which is very smooth and as a result, nests tend to fall down, sometimes with the nestlings inside. An appropriate artificial house martin nest box avoids these problems.
There is access to the bowls via the back of the House Martin Nest Box to enable cleaning, this does mean that they would need to be taken down from their site.