This is neat. They’re essentially hollow bricks - albeit permeable so that they can drain - but more importantly they’re being approved for construction with general info for placement as well
"This summer, the British Standards Institution will, for the first time, issue guidance on bird bricks, making it simple for architects to incorporate them within their designs."
These are clearly bigger than a normal brick, but i couldn't tell how big from the article. This has a diagram of one:
My son and I built a next box and put it in the garden. It isn't hard (even for a software engineer like me). We have now had several generation of blue tits nest there. A few points:
-The size of the entrance hole is important, depending on what sort of bird you want.
-The orientation relative to the sun is important.
-Don't put a peg below the hole. Birds (bluetits anyway) don't need it and it may give purchase for predators.
-The birds seem to like having some twigs thay can land on near the box. So don't cut back all the foliage around it.
Chimney Swifts would be the type of swift that breeds in your part of the world. They apparently[0] use the insides of brick chimneys to build nests, so if you have one of those simply leaving it uncovered during the spring and summer might give them the opportunity to nest.
Is there some reason one wouldn't just stick a birdhouse on the wall? Seems simpler than building a nest into the house?
Some birds preferentially nest in holes in rock vs holes in wood, similar to some species making exposed nests rather than wanting holes in objects.
More aesthetic and safer for people also. In a windy day, a nest box could fall over the head of somebody. On the other hand would be more difficult to clean.
I’m not clear why the one picture has three bricks near each other. Do they not open into the same space?
It looks like each brick is hollow, so think of them as birdhouses integrated into the wall. As for proximity there are many species that nest close to each other - it might seem like density would help predators, but there are defense benefits to having neighbors sound alerts and join you in putting a sharp beak into the back of a squirrel's skull.