In message . com,
" writes
for 2 days I have heard a noise like a woodpecker and this morning I
finally tracked down what he was doing. I was woken by this yammering
on wood and I thought it was in the eaves, it wasn't it was at the
bird box on the wall and pecking the entrance hole enlarging it!

I shooed it off but it was back within a minute. The parents of the
blue tits in the box only came back after the bad bird had gone.

I don't know anything about birds, the bad one was black with a red
crest and a longish beak, I don't know if that is a woodpecker or
not. Sorry not to be more precise. My question is, as I am just
going out to the dentist, what can I do to protect the birds? Shall I
take the box off the wall until I get back or would that distress the
parents so much that they might abandon it? An urgent reply would be
appreciated.

Judith

We had this problem with a woodpecker, and we covered the house with
bottom tray from a pram we happened to have kept. A largeish hanging
basket or something similar could also be draped over the nest box, I
think: anything the tits can get through but not the bigger bird,
whatever it is.

--
Klara, Gatwick basin