Artificial nests give Hong Kong’s cockatoos a home – and a chance to study their behavior

Conservationists Astrid Andersson and Harry Wong have installed 15 artificial nest boxes across Hong Kong Island since last year to help the city's roughly 200 feral yellow-crested cockatoos, a critically endangered species with fewer than 2,000 left in its native Indonesia and Timor-Leste range. Hong Kong's population, descended from released or escaped pets, represents about 10% of the species' global wild total and has shown unexpectedly high genetic diversity.

Andersson estimates more than 60% of the birds' natural tree hollows in the city have disappeared to typhoons and government pruning, prompting the camera-equipped boxes modeled on Australian designs. Schools including St. Louis School, ISF Academy and Quarry Bay School have adopted boxes, with one St. Louis pair moving in within a month of installation and staying put.

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