Report from participants

l IN THE CITY, EVEN SPARROWS ARE HAVING HOUSING SHORTAGE?
Nakano Junior High School:Nature Investigation Club(July 10)

May 30, 2000
We checked the bird boxes put up on the trees of our school yard. We had built and put them up in December, 1999. What kind of wild birds are breeding in the nine boxes?

Box No. 8, on a keyaki tree at the back of the gymnasium	Box No. 2, on a gingko tree that we can see from the Technical Room. In it, we found as much as 6 centimeter-deep moss. It's a mystery where all the moss came from. Japanese great tit was breeding in this box.	"We can hear the chicks chirping in this box." This is Box No. 9, on an oak by the gymnasium. Sparrows were breeding in it.	Box No. 8, at the back of the gymnasium. Lots of hay was stuck in it for the breeding of sparrows.
Box No. 2, located next to the Technical Room, is about 2 meters tall.

Comments from Students
In total nine bird boxes, Japanese great tit was breeding in one box and sparrows in five boxes, but two boxes had no bird reproduced in them. The holes we made about 3 centimeters wide helped the sparrows to get in to the boxes. Next year, we will make the holes 2.8 centimeters in diameter and see what happens.