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Taking part

Nest Box Challenge is an on-line survey, so there are no paper forms to complete. Instead, you record your observations online via the NBC Data Home page. To take part in Nest Box Challenge, please follow these steps:

 

  1. Register your contact details.

    You need to create your own user account so that you alone can access all your Nest Box Challenge information online. Please see here for details on creating a user account.

     

  2. Login to NBC Data Home.

    Once you have registered, you can log in to NBC Data Home whenever you want to record observations or register gardens or boxes. A button that takes you to the login page is always available at the top left of the Nest Box Challenge web pages (see above).

     

  3. Register your garden and nest boxes/sites.

    The first time you login in to NBC Data Home, you should tell us about your garden/green space and your nest boxes/sites by registering them. Please see here for instructions on registering gardens and nest sites/boxes.

     

  4. Watch what's going on with your nest boxes/sites.

    We provide full instructions on how to safely monitor the nest boxes and nests in your garden by approaching them and inspecting the contents. However, if you cannot or do not wish to look inside your nest boxes, you can still collect valuable information. Please see here for instructions on monitoring your nest boxes and nests.

     

  5. Enter your observations.

    Every time you have observations you want to record, simply log in to NBC Data Home and select My observations from the Your options menu. Please see here for more details on recording your observations online.

 

Four things to remember about taking part...

  • Register your box as soon as you've put it up - don't wait until something uses it.
  • Tell us about empty boxes. One of the things we're trying to find out is how often nest boxes are used by birds, so we need to know the empty ones as well as the used ones. See here for more details.
  • Tell us about unsuccessful nests. Please record your observations online even if the nest in the box fails.
  • If you don't don't wish to look in your nest box, you can still record useful information.