When you look up into the branches of the trees around the Davidson Street revegetation precinct you can see nesting boxes of dfferent sizes and shapes installed in a variety of different settings.

Custom designed nesting boxes have been installed for wood ducks, gliders, lorikeets, rosellas, possums and native bees.

Sometimes the boxes are used by their intended target species - othertimes not. While an inspection in March 2019 recorded the squirrel gliders at home in one of their custom designed rear facing boxes it also noted a brushtail possum taking up residence in a wood duck box!

Things were going somewhat more to plan however in the small parrot box where a lorikeet feather indicated it being recently used by an intended target species.

Early nest box initiatives

An early example of children being encouraged to establish nesting boxes in order to attract more of their favourite birds to live nearby, comes from this article in The Queenslander newspaper in April 1908.

The article went on to warn that cats were the biggest danger to box dwelling birds. It recommended setting the box up above a thick clump of thorny bushes stating that this would prevent intrusion as a cat never risks any injury to itself.

Small mammal nest boxes

By the 1950s the value of nesting boxes for small mammals was being appreciated.

As an article in the Courier Mail explained, at the West Burleigh Fauna Reserve, old boxes were put out to assist squirrel gliders to form up their nests.