Hi
I've been planting out out front yard to natives with a lot of indigenous plants over the last 10 years. The grasses, low stuff and trees are doing well. The shrubs layer has been a mixed success and there is still not as many as I would like. The combination of previous long drought and the fact it is a steep west facing slope with sandy water repellant soil didn't help. I'm less than 1 km from the coast in Ocean Grove, Victoria. I lost a whole bank of correas when it finally did rain. But it's getting there and I'm certainly getting more interesting and varied bugs for the kids to look at even if the range of bird visitors hasn't increased much.
The kids and my husband decided to build a nest box last school holidays at my request, as a project and put it up. The last week we've had a pair of Eastern Rosellas spending an extended time each day in and around it. My kids are wondering how long it is likely that it will take them to make up their minds about if they want to use it or not?
I'm curious to as to how much in general they will tolerate people wandering around, as you need to go past it to get to the front door? We could have put the box in a more isolated spot but this way my daughter who has a moderate vision impairment can watch it from the upstairs window. When I talk them into making me a couple more I'll put them in more out of the way spots.
Nest box - my hubby researches everything to death put on the excluder to keep Mynahs out as there are heaps of them around.
Sorry the shot isn't clear but it's taken through the upstairs window.
That's an interesting design kabeales I haven't seen a box with a baffle quite like that. I'm no expert but I would guess that if the rosellas are hanging around the box they are looking to move in. I would also guess that in view of the shortage of rental accommodation they would be prepared to put up with a bit of pedestrian traffic nearby. Its hard to tell from the photo how high the box is placed and that might be the decider in whether they feel safe enough to nest there. I will be interested in the outcome.
The nest is about 3m or so off the ground. I'll be interested to to see how they go. And there is definitely a shortage of nest sites around here any natural hollow seems to be fully occupied.
The baffle was my hubbys interpretation of this plan. Obviously not quite as shown on the plan. However given the number of mynahs around here and the fact none moved in seems to have worked. The rosellas don't seem to be having any trouble getting in.
http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/sites/www.birdsinbackyards.net/files/page/attachments/Nest-box-technical-information.pdf
That is wonderful! See my thread here: http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/forum/Bird-Week-nest-theme-and-we-need-your-help we are looking for people keen to share their nesting stories...
That is wonderful! See my thread here: http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/forum/Bird-Week-nest-theme-and-we-need-your-help we are looking for people keen to share their nesting stories...
I'm not too sure what has a bird choose a nest site - I have a couple of boxes up for rosellas and they are certainly around, but none have used it yet.
One of the boxes is being used by a possum, and both have been checked out by pairs of rosellas in the past, so I have hopes that they will get use at some stage.
There could be many reasons, like availability of food/water, seeding grasses, amount of shrub and/or tree cover etc.
Good luck with yours, and be sure to let us know if you get some residents!
Cheers
Tim
Brisbane
Hi kabeales. I don't know about Eastern Rosellas but other bird species tolerated human traffic as long as there are no threats from the humans. E.g., my brother & his wife had a small dam near their newly built house & the wood ducks didn't take long to stay around after a short period of flightiness.
I'm interested to learn how long it takes from first inspection to moving in.
Great to hear you're planting indigenous plants on your property. Way to go!
hi.
We have a kookaburra box that i constructed and placed about 5m up a lemon scented gum. Two pale headed rosellas have moved in and the female i would say began sitting friday. They checked the box out over four days comming and going four or five times a day. Now the male visits in the sfternoon and whistles the female out and they fly off to feed. This behaviour has been happening since friday. According to this site the sitting period is 19 days. The tree is close to the back door and stairs. we are noisy family and they havnt moved out yet.
We'd given up on tthe guys as we hadn't seen them much since a week or so after my initial post. But look who we spotted hanging around underneath tryong to cool off today.
I don't know who was more surprised and excited me or the kids.
That is very exciting, hope they stay?!
M-L