Nest boxes gave Hong Kong's cockatoos new places to nest

Yellow-crested cockatoos in Hong Kong have fifteen new nest boxes, and four of them already hold a pair. Mongabay reported the project on October 6, 2026. Astrid Andersson, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Hong Kong, and arborist Harry Wong built the boxes because hollow trees are scarce. Andersson estimates that more than 60 percent of natural hollows are gone, lost to typhoons or to pruning, and that about fifteen natural tree nests remain. The species is critically endangered, with fewer than 2,000 birds in its native range in eastern Indonesia and Timor-Leste. Hong Kong's population is about 200, roughly a tenth of the wild birds left, descended from pets that were released or escaped. A DNA study by the researchers found high genetic diversity in the city birds, which they say could matter for the species in its native range.

The boxes went up on Hong Kong Island starting in March 2025, with cameras inside. In May, a chick that hatched in an apartment air-conditioning vent was placed in a box near that building. The parents found it after seven hours, fed it, and it fledged. At St. Louis School, one pair moved into a box outside an art classroom in May 2026 and stayed. A second box, ignored on a wall, was shifted into a tree in September. The team planned to add at least three more boxes later in October. Those extra boxes were still a plan when the article was published, not a finished installation.