Nest Boxes
Nest boxes are bridging the gap – fast forwarding time to create instant habitat for our wildlife today.
Across the Sunshine Coast there is areas of historic clearing and logging, this has seen the removal of large mature trees from some areas that would of provided natural arboreal habitat.
Whilst revegetation of the area is establishing, a short term solution is required to provide suitable habitats is can be in the form of the installation of nest boxes.
A long term research and development project has been established to look into the most suitable options to protect our regions biodiversity.
This project includes salvaging timber to create nest boxes, seeing to a second life for timber that has been felled as part of unavoidable clearing. High durability Class 1 species Eucalyptus teretecornis, Corymbia gumifera and eucalyptus microcorys can be milled and turned into suitable nest boxes for arboreal fauna. By using these species this gives the next boxes an life expectancy of 40 years plus.
Once these nest boxes have been built they will fitted with a Passive Infrared (PIR) detector this can monitor the temperature (insulation qualities), Humidity (livability) and presence (use). The data that is collected from the PIR is transmitted to a base station located within the reserve the nest boxes are located in, providing real time data to our officers to guide and inform revegetation strategies.
Sunshine Coast Council Nestbox Project, Baroon Pocket Environment Reserve.
Target species for the nest boxes:
- Brushtail Possum (Common & Short-eared)
- Microbat- hollow-roosting spp.
- Squirrel/Sugar Glider
- Greater Glider
- Antechinus
- Sooty Owl
- Powerful Owl
- Masked Owl
- Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo
- Glossy Black Cockatoo
- Australian Owlet-nightjar
- Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
- King Parrot
- Laughing Kookaburra
- Pale-headed Rosella
- Forest Kingfisher
Council is undertaking a Advanced Faunal Habitat Program, where Council seeks to salvage useable coarse woody debris from unavoidable tree clearing or removal. This will see this coarse woody debris can find a new life as construct advanced terrestrial and arborial faunal habitats within revegetation and offset projects where these resources are absent.
Find out more about the Advanced Faunal Habitat Program here.
Importance of nest boxes for fauna
As our big trees with ideal hollows and habitat get rarer and rarer, it must be noted how important nest boxes are for our native fauna now and for the future.