I live in the Victorian bush. My husband has just taken a dead tree down that was leaning over our drive, and there are some baby birds in a hollow in the tree. He has made a nesting box to put them in a neighbouring tree. I haven't been able to identify what type of bird it is, in order to establish whether we have done to correct thing. The chicks are covered in white fluff. Any ideas?
Well, catherinepalm76, about 30% of Australia's over 700 bird species depend on hollows in old trees for nesting so those youngsters would be very difficult to identify. Have you seen the parent(s) toing & froing? Identify them & you'll indentify the youngsters.
Since the natural nest site has been taken down I guess the next best thing is to provide an artificial alternative so you've probably done the most helpful thing for the birds. It'll be interesting to see if the parents visit the new nest site. Keep a look out & I for one would be delighted to hear from you about the survival of the nestlings. If you can't identify the parents post a description of photo of them together with a location as very few Australian birds range over the whole continent.
Good on you both for doing your best to protect these birds. I imagine you've already reflected on the time of year when dangerous trees are best removed!
You should always check if anything is living in a tree before cutting it down, those birds are probably doomed, unless you know how to hand feed them.
For Australian birds, natives=life, exotics=death, so do them a favour and go plant some natives and save their lives.