KEEPERS at Dudley Zoo are inviting children to help care for some of the site’s wild birds this half term.

Young visitors can decorate a nest box in the Discovery Centre, which staff will fix to trees around the zoo’s 40-acre wooded hillside to enhance the population of native birds.

Birds section leader, Kellie Piper, said: “We’ve got hundreds of small wild birds around the zoo site including chaffinches, robins, blue tits, long tail tits and nuthatches, which all need to find places to nest in the coming weeks.

“With many of their natural nesting sites fast disappearing it is vital we provide suitable boxes that are safe and warm for them to start laying their eggs in.”

The free activity coincides with National Nest Box Week, which aims to encourage bird lovers to add nest boxes to their gardens to help breeding birds.

Kellie added: “We hope many of our young visitors will help us decorate the boxes and then hopefully spot their box being used in a few months time.”