Tips for Position of Nesting Box in Trees?

[johnmw1]

Hi,

Having been thinking about placing a nesting box or two in my huge gum trees at the bottom of my backyard.

Since having Rocky with us and hearing him converse (screeching) with the local birds that come through at least twice a day, I thought it would be nice to try to encourage some of them to stay a bit more longer than usual.

Do galahs only call to one another or to all other breeds like the lorikeets and sulphur crested's etc, I would just like to know who he is really trying to call?

Considering I am in the middle of suburbia, last year we had a koala in one of our gums for about three months or so and then he was gone as quickly as he came.

Anyway predominantly we have most of our weather coming from the SW here in Adelaide, so I'm assuming that the box should be placed on the opposite side to that. Is there anything else I need to know about nest positioning or nesting boxes in general, IE what goes in the bottom of them (if anything) etc.

I'm looking at buying them and have come across this website shop.nestingboxes.com.au/epages/shsh6893.sf which seems quite good, are there any other good suppliers around, I just can't be bothered making them myself.

Cheers,
John

[avinet]

May 9, 2011 10:19:37 GMT 10 johnmw1 said:

Hi,

Having been thinking about placing a nesting box or two in my huge gum trees at the bottom of my backyard.


I'm looking at buying them and have come across this website shop.nestingboxes.com.au/epages/shsh6893.sf which seems quite good, are there any other good suppliers around, I just can't be bothered making them myself.

Cheers,
John

I would assume that you are right about placing the boxes on the opposite side to the prevailing winds and rain - and out of the afternoon sun which could heat the box up to too hign a temperature for the chicks to survive. So east to north east is the best orientation.

The site you linked to makes good quality boxes - I have seen their stuff at bird shows. I guess the first thing to tdo is decide what sort of bird is likely to be attracted to a box - do you have galahs, corellas, rosellas or lorikeets hanging around that may use a box you put up?

If it is rosellas note that there seems to be a mistake on their web page. They have a red-rump box as 600 x 240 x 240 mm with a 120 mm hole and a rosella box with 400 x 200 x 200 mm dimensions and a 75mm hole. Looks to me like they have them the wrong way round - a rosella is bigger than a red-rump.

I'll email them about that.

cheers,

Mike

[alemap]

Sorry to go of subject a bit but in the site for nest boxes they show a black cockatoo box with an entrance hole, ive been told when i build a box for my redtail blacks to just leave the top off the box for an entrance as they wont enter a hole. Is this correct or should i give them a box with an entrance hole? thanks for any replies.

[avinet]

May 10, 2011 4:07:57 GMT 10 alemap said:

Sorry to go of subject a bit but in the site for nest boxes they show a black cockatoo box with an entrance hole, ive been told when i build a box for my red-tail blacks to just leave the top off the box for an entrance as they wont enter a hole. Is this correct or should i give them a box with an entrance hole? thanks for any replies.

I don't breed Black cockatoos but from what I've seen in other aviaries, most breeders use logs with open tops but with an inspection door near the base. The reason given for using logs is that they are less likely to be chewed out than a constructed box. However I have seen normal boxes with a side entrance used successfully, with all chewable edges protected with metal strips.

With a new pair of birds, no matter which species, I always try to put in two different boxes and let the birds pick which one they prefer. Once they have decided the one they don't want can be removed.

cheers,

Mike

[johnmw1]

Hi Mike,

The site you linked to makes good quality boxes - I have seen their stuff at bird shows. I guess the first thing to do is decide what sort of bird is likely to be attracted to a box - do you have galahs, corellas, rosellas or lorikeets hanging around that may use a box you put up?

That's good to know the boxes are of good quality, I had a bit of a look around and for what I found they did seem to be the pick of the bunch.

Ideally I would love to attract some more galahs or sulphur crested into the area because they are around, but also I have a multitude of lorikeets in the trees and chances are that is what would probably end up nesting.

On occasion we also get the big black cockatoos but which variety they actually are I have no idea.

Should anything be put into the bottom of the box like leaf litter or anything?

Shock horror I have actually got myself a job and find myself on the way to Melbourne tomorrow morning to stay overnight to return home the next day, so sorry for any delays in answering.

Cheers,
John