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A great way to encourage a festive Christmas Robin into you garden is to provide a supply of meal worms, one of the robins favourite treats. You can also encourage robins by installing a nest box for them in your garden. Robin boxes are a bit different in style to the popular blue tit box, in that they are less enclosed. So you may already have a bird box in your garden, but if you want to provide a habitat for a robin, you need a robin friendly nesting box.

Robin nest boxes make ideal Christmas present for any bird lover or keen gardener. They are quite straightforward to make, but you do have to use a saw and drill, so younger children will need help from a grown up.

You can buy Robin Nest boxes online or at your local garden centre, they cost around ten to fifteen pounds. However, for the fraction of the price, you can make your own Robin box quite easily. It's a great little project to make the box and it's very rewarding when robins take up residence.

To make your Robin Nesting box you will need: Wood - a decking plank is ideal and only costs around 3 pounds, and screws.

You need to cut the decking plank into the following lengths...
26cm long for the back panel
15 cm for the roof panel
8 cm for the front panel
The base needs to be the same length as the planks width.
The 2 sides need to have a sloping top, the back edge should be 18cm and the front edge should be 13cm

Note: The two sides need to be cut out so that they are inverted if you are using a decking panel with a textured side.

When you have cut the wood out give it a light sanding to get rid of any rough edges or splinters. Don't worry if your sawing isn't perfect, the robins won't mind about the rough and readiness of their new home, they're not too house proud!

Follow the photo diagram to assemble the robin box.

Use a drill to pilot drill holes, and then screw in two screws through the bottom back into the edge of the base wood.

Then get the first side in place, screwing two screws up through the base wood and into the side. and then through the bas and into the side.

similarly, attach the other side to match.

with just two screws, attach the front panel to the bird box, screwing into the side panels.

Finally, screw the roof into place.

On the back panel that sticks up from the roof, you will need to drill a hole through the wood to mount the nesting box.

The great thing about making a robin box from decking planks is that the wood has already been treated so you don't need to paint it. Having said that, if you do want to protect your nest box further, use a water-based preservative that won't harm your feathery tenants.

Site nest boxes where birds won't be disturbed, away from prevailing winds, rain and the full glare of the sun. Make sure the box is 2m to 5m from the ground and there are no nearby footholds for predators.