In 2017, the City of Melbourne hosted a ‘HollowBlitz’, where citizen scientists examined what birds were nesting in tree hollows in our municipality.

The BioBlitz took place over four nights in October and November 2017 at five parks in the city: Carlton Gardens, Fawkner Park, Fitzroy Gardens, Royal Park and the Stock Route in Kensington.

Over 200 volunteers helped out over the course of the events.

Although we know the City of Melbourne is home to many hollow-nesting birds, the study found only a few species nesting in parks. We suspect this is due to a lack of suitably sized hollows, so we’ve started to create new, human-made hollows in existing trees.

Working with Citizen Foresters, City of Melbourne has now published a database of trees with hollows throughout our parks.