Adding Animal Homes to your Garden

Bird Boxes

The most common animal homes added to a garden are bird boxes.  However, just as birds differ greatly in characteristics such as size, shape and behaviour – so do their homes!

Try to supply your garden with homes for the specific type of birds you can see throughout the year, including migrant visitors like Swifts, Swallows and House Martins.  The RSPB website hosts a wide range of information about wildlife which can help you identify what type of birds you are seeing and what nest box is needed.  This information will help you figure out the right type of home needed, so that you can then purchase or even make a nest box and site it in the right location.

Maintenance of any bird nest boxes should take place yearly between 1st August- 31st January in Scotland, as it is illegal to intentionally or recklessly disturb any wild birds during the nesting season.

Mammals

Sometimes you don’t think about creating homes for mammals, but it’s just an import to create a safe space for them. You can create Hedgehog homes for hibernating in over winter or maternity nests in warmer months. It’s also important to link your garden with others with hedgehog friendly fencing.

Bat boxes are another good addition to gardens to help support our native midge-eaters. Where you put your bat box is just as important, make sure they are located where bats are known to feed.

Amphibians

Amphibians need homes too, create Frog or Toad homes to replicate shelter in damp and dark corners of gardens. Have you looked at our Adding Water to your Garden page for tip on creating ponds?

Invertebrates

Bug Hotels have become a big thing in recent years for trying to help struggling insects. However the designs of some of the pre-made versions are not always well thought out. For example by trying to cater to too many different types or by using unsuitable materials. Creating natural insect habitats will always be better in your garden, by keeping areas such as log piles, stone piles, leaf letter or bee banks.

Some pre-made bug hotel designs can work well – for example solitary bee hotels.  Building your own is just as easy if you have the right resources. A helpful article on the subject of what works well, and what doesn’t, includes things to think about such as insect types, material types and any maintenance involved.

One bug ‘hotel’ you may not have heard of before, but which can be very effective, is a Hoverfly Lagoon or Rot Pot.  They are easy to create and aim to simulate holes in trees filled with leaf litter, which would be home for the larval stages of some species of hoverfly.

Another ‘bug hotel’ to think about is wildlife ponds. Many invertebrates (and other animals!) rely on water to complete their life cycle and having a pond can help them. For example, 17 species of dragonflies are known to breed regularly in garden ponds. The British Dragonfly Society have some great resources on how to manage your pond for dragonflies.

Diversity is key!

Swallow © Abbie Ferrar

Hedgehog © Abbie Ferrar

Common Frog © Calum Maclure

Leafcutter Bee © Calum Maclure