Many of our native wildlife need tree hollows for shelter and nesting. It can take 100 years for a tree to develop a suitable hollow and in urban areas there simply aren’t enough old trees around. Where natural hollows are limited, the more abundant species like Brush tail Possum and Cockatoos may push out smaller and rarer wildlife making it even harder for their survival. So a good start to keep wildlife abundant is to maintain old trees and their hollows for the habitat they provide.
You can help your local wildlife by building and installing nesting boxes for the more at risk species like Sugar Gliders, Pygmy Possum, Red-rumped Parrots, Micro bats, Pardalotes and cute Ringtail possums.
Each of these species has different requirements and one needs the correct design and dimensions of the box to attract the right animal.
A Publication from the Greater Sydney Local Land Services, Build your own Wildlife Nest
Box: A guide for Western Sydney is freely available on the internet. The guide gives detailed plans for nest boxes to house various native animals along with instructions for selecting material, installation, cleaning, and monitoring:
http://greatersydney.lls.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/656610/GS-LLS- Wildlife- Nest-Box- 2016_Final-Accessible.pdf
Nesting Boxes can be as simple as a hollow log hung in an appropriate location to provide great insulation against cold and heat and last for many years. But make sure you are not stealing one animals home to make another. Hollow logs on the ground are important to provide shelter to ground living native animals. They should not be removed to build a nesting box in the tree.
If you’re building a box, a warm and strong material like 15 mm hardwood is best to make the nesting box effective and long lived. So why not hang one in sight of where you live and enjoy watching the native animals set up home around your home
Contacts: www.stillcreeklandcare.com.au or Facebook
