Recovery Plan for the Norfolk Island Green Parrot Cyanoramphus novaezelandiae cookii
Nest Hollow ShortageNest Hollow Shortage
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Nest Hollow Shortage
The number of natural nest sites is now very small and natural replacement of nest sites will take many years. Only 12% of the island has natural vegetation where natural hollows can develop and hollows are rare in most of this remaining native vegetation.
A number of artificial nest boxes have been trialed including nest boxes made from PVC pipe and from plywood and none was successful. This is despite exhaustive trialing of numerous designs in a variety of materials, and advice and the expertise of expert aviculturists brought to Norfolk Island. Thus further attempts to develop artificial nest boxes for field placement are not warranted at this stage (J. Hicks pers.comm., P. Stevenson, pers.comm.).
The only successful man-made nests have been natural hollows salvaged from island trees and erected in a known breeding area. Parrots have successfully fledged young from these nests (R. Ward pers.comm.).