Tree felling at a section of bushland near Buckland has been an ongoing problem for a number of years, with thousands of trees illegally removed from the site.

Earlier this year Australian National University researcher Dejan Stojanovic reported that a handful of trees known to be prime nesting spots for the critically endangered parrot had been removed.

Researchers and community groups have since set to work readying the site for the fast-approaching breeding season, setting up nesting boxes built by the Break O’Day Green Army and NRM South.

Arborists from the Victorian Tree Industry Organisation have also recently volunteered their services, offering to carve new hollows into trees at the site.

Dr Stojanovic said he had been heartened by how many people had shown an interest in restoring the nesting area.

“We've already put some nest boxes up at Buckland, we put 30 up last week so there's already boxes there right in the impact area, so there's already something done in case birds turn up in the meantime,” Dr Stojanovic said.

“Birds are on their way back, they're heading south and they'll probably be in Tassie next month.”

Dr Stojanovic said the VITO arborists would arrive in early October – just before the parrots were expected to return.

“They're coming out at some point in the next couple of weeks - we're still doing planning for it and I'm still getting the permits ready so we can do it - but hopefully we should be able to get a few hollows back in the trees.

“That site is quite an important site, it's been used (by parrots) for three of the six years that we've been monitoring parrots in Tassie.

“There's not many places like that that get repeatedly used so it's pretty sad to see how many trees have been lost.”

Dr Stojanovic said he had counted about 2000 tree stumps within his 1.5 square kilometre study area at Buckland, half of which had been cut in the past five years. 

There are less than 2000 swift parrots remaining in the wild.