[minibn]

Hi,

My mum is currently in the process of completing a house renevation. At the moment the windows are being replaced and changed. So some of the openings have been left open, hence the robin.

The robin appears to have made a nest in a gap in the beam in the living room.

Help!!!

Can I move the nest and if so how? The last thing I want to do is harm the robin. Will I have to wait until it's layed and the fledglings have left the nest. When do they generally start breading?

I don't want to cause damage to the nest, but need it moving so we can put up plaster board etc.

Any advice welcome

Emily

[Fleecewife]

I see your problem, however, disturbing a nesting bird is illegal and I think that applies to moving it's nest before the eggs are laid.  You might just have to leave that bit of ceiling til later.

[Buttermilk]

If there are no eggs yet move the nest.  The birds will make another one elsewhere.

[Fleecewife]

After a brief Google search I found lots of info, such as:
Is it legal to move or destroy active birds' nests? Almost certainly no. All birds theirnests and eggs are protected by law: the Wildlife & Countryside Act of 1981. This makes it an offence, with certain exceptions, to deliberately take, damage or destroy the nest of any wild bird while it is in use or being built.

Nestboxes | Frequently Asked Questions - The RSPB

https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and...can...birds/nestboxes/frequently-asked-questions/


See this link too, for the Police opinion and the need for a license to do anything with an active nest:
https://www.askthe.police.uk/content/Q700.htm

[doganjo]

Contact your local Environmental Health Department. Tell them it is urgent and they will respond.

[Fleecewife]

After a brief Google search I found lots of info, such as:
Is it legal to move or destroy active birds' nests? Almost certainly no. All birds theirnests and eggs are protected by law: the Wildlife & Countryside Act of 1981. This makes it an offence, with certain exceptions, to deliberately take, damage or destroy the nest of any wild bird while it is in use or being built.

Nestboxes | Frequently Asked Questions - The RSPB

https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and...can...birds/nestboxes/frequently-asked-questions/


See this link too, for the Police opinion and the need for a license to do anything with an active nest:
https://www.askthe.police.uk/content/Q700.htm

For heavens sake! If there's no eggs in it then there's no damage done by moving it,  as Buttermilk says. Yes it is illegal and yes you can get done for it! And yes I was accused under that very law last year and it was thrown out of court. Rules are made for the guidance of wisemen and the obedience of fools! If you consider the spirit of the law, rather than slavishly following the letter, it would be obvious that providing there are no eggs laid yet there would ultimately be far less disturbance if you remove the nest and let the robin rebuild elsewhere, than if you have ham fisted workmen trying to tiptoe round the poor bird for a month while it gets its chicks hatched out and ready to leave!    

I don't think I deserved that landroverroy.  I was pointing out the law as it stands, which is there for the benefit of wildlife, not for the benefit of humans.  By moving the nest when the female robin is about to lay her eggs, she will then have nowhere to lay them, and no time to build another nest before she has to lay. I have no idea what would happen to the bird and the eggs if they had to come out and her nest has gone, and it doesn't sound as if you know either, or even care. This means a whole season would be lost for this breeding pair.
It's up to the OP what she decides to do, and here on TAS we can only ever give advice to our best ability.  If you don't agree with it, then please at least be polite about it.

[landroverroy]

Come on Fleecewife _ I'm not getting at you! I was merely pointing out what seemed to me to be a common sense point of view - that the robin would be better relocating somewhere else where it could raise its brood in peace. However, I will concede that I hadn't considered that the robin might have already started to produce the egg, so have reached the point of no return. So I will shortly withdraw my comment.


However please don't accuse me of not caring about wildlife. I care greatly. My accusers last year of disturbing birds nest were malicious neighbours that were upset because I was trimming a hedge. There were no nests in it and if there had have been I wouldn't have touched it. But when that law under which I was unjustly accused is quoted in a font twice the size of everyone else's post so it jumps out of the page, like it was the only thing that mattered rather than the good of the bird and its future eggs, then  perhaps under the circumstances I might be excused for overeacting [size=78%]  [/size]

[doganjo]

I don't know enough about small wild birds but hens have a 26 hour laying cycle depending on light and weather.  So they have to lay - they can't stop it, except under extreme circumstances.  The main difference is hens will lay anywhere if their nesting box isn't available.

I think what Fleecewife is saying is that it is cruel to remove the nest (as well as being illegal) unless it is still in the early stages of being built - in which case the robin will probably start again elsewhere.

There have been a lot of reports in the news recently about netting being put over nesting sites to prevent birds coming back to their habitual (and instinctively ingrained) sites - for the benefit of humans usually  That is also cruel and illegal and there are moves afoot for prosecution of the perpetrators.

So again my advice is to contact environmental health - although by now the robin may have laid.