Thread by @teamswiftparrot

🚨New Research!
Do nest boxes breed the target species or do they just help its competitors?
We looked at this question for swift #parrots to see if nest boxes are a good long term conservation strategy.
Read it here👇
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/re…

A quick thread (1/10)

(2/10) Tree hollows suitable for swift parrots are extremely rare (and are becoming rarer because of logging).

Nest boxes are a popular conservation option to compensate for rare hollows.

But swift parrots compete with 2 birds for hollows and boxes: tree martins and starlings

(3/10) Tree martins are a small native bird that nest in the hollows and boxes used by parrots - since they're subordinate to parrots, we don't mind if they use boxes, but their nests fill up the boxes, creating cleaning work for managers

(4/10) common starlings are an introduced songbird that are an equal/dominant competitor with swift parrots. They can destroy swift parrot nests by throwing the parrot eggs out, and they fill up the nest boxes with their nests, making them less attractive to parrots.

(5/10) We looked at nest box occupancy by parrots, martins and starlings to see if occupancy by each was predicted by (i) distance to forest edges, and (ii) whether boxes were newly deployed or established (3 years old).

(6/10) swift parrots used boxes at about the same rate regardless of whether they were new or established, and their use of boxes declined with distance away from forest edges

(7/10) martins preferred boxes away from forest edges, but established boxes were used at a greater rate than newly deployed ones

(8/10) starlings preferred boxes at the forest edge, but were much more likely to use established boxes than new ones

(9/10) Putting nest boxes up and leaving them alone can result in high occupancy rates by non-target species. Nest boxes aren't a silver bullet - in the case of swift parrots, we suggest boxes be sealed shut when parrots are away so competitors don't monopolize them.

(10/10) This study was funded by a crowdfunding campaign run by @Manic_Henry and many of you contributed 💰💸 to help us build and deploy these boxes.
Thank you so much for your support, and a huge shout out to @owensecology @CatMYoung @Fe_biologia for helping me do this work💪