Our two nesting crimson rosella families are doing very well. One family has three chicks probably hatched last weekend, and the other has two almost feathered chicks clearly hatched quite a while ago! The young chick family started with 5 eggs, the older chick family started with 6 eggs. I’ve stayed well clear of the area for the past two weeks, however I took a quick peek as it’s important for me to know if my strategies are resulting in nesting success.
One nest box has no nearby trees, so a wildlife camera to watch any action is not possible. I have a wildlife camera on the three chick nest box. Did you know that previous year siblings help with keeping the nest-sitter fed? I didn’t! It looks like a juvenile diligently feeds the nest-sitter ever morning – and gets grouched at sometimes too. The adult mate comes later and calls the sitter off for brunch/lunch, and then a gain mid-afternoon.
So we are finally having success with parrots nesting in boxes, after trying for three nesting seasons. The first year, I only had a 2m high A-frame ladder and the nest boxes probably weren’t considered high enough by the parrots. I know this is a thing.
The second year, I purchased a very long ladder and shifted all the boxes to ~ 5m high positions up trees. All five of the small to medium parrot sized boxes had an egg laid in each in quick succession by (I think) all Crimson Rosellas, and within a day or few the nest boxes were raided and eggs eaten. No parrots successfully nested in any nest box last year.
I didn’t know then about the numerous brushtail possums on our property, that had been soft-released by Wildcare over many years, and that they like eating eggs, nestlings and adult birds. I estimate there are ~20 on our 5 acre property after seeing 2-3 in a single frame on my different wildlife cameras located across the property, and also from walking around and counting them on warm summer nights. I didn’t know to put possum protection on all nest box tree else they would be raided, except for one duck box that was raided the first year.
This year before nesting season I installed 1m wide thick plastic guards above and below all nest boxes to prevent raiding and occupation by brushtails, and occupation by ringtails. All of the small-medium sized parrot nest boxes that had brushtails or ringtails using them at some point in the past year did not get any interest from nesting parrots. Three new, clean smelling nest boxes had eggs laid, one was raided by a sugar glider and was abandoned, and the other two are the ones with chicks now in them.
Some of our duck nest boxes were raided this year by crows, so I’ve begun to paint all the nest boxes in woodland bark colours. From many years of birdwatching I know that the survival of a nest depends strongly on it being not noticed by predators. Camouflage is vital part of this. Since the sugar glider raid, I have been quite heavy handed with installing anti-possum guards on some of the nest boxes with eggs laid now that I have discovered that sugar gliders love to eat eggs, as well as do the brushtail possums. The possum guards look to be working so far.
I will do lots of experimentation once nesting season is over, with possum protection of trees & nest boxes, nest box placements, and with many wildlife cameras watching the antics of our probably dozens of resident sugar gliders trying to gain access to the nest boxes. Wood duck, kookaburra and white throated tree creeper nest box updates coming in the next few weeks…
It’s no wonder the nest boxes installed as ‘environmental offsets’ in place of cleared habitat trees, intended for endangered species such as orange-bellied parrots, are found to be not used by the intended species. There is much more to encouraging the use, and also ensuring the success of any nesting efforts, of a nest box by a fussy target species that is vulnerable to predation, than just sticking a nest box up a tree and walking away.