ABSTRACT Many cavity nesters add volatile plants with medicinal properties to their nests. In Australia, eucalyptus and tea-trees are highly volatile plants, which have antiparasitic and antimicrobial properties. Here, we tested whether scents of eucalypt (Eucalyptus polybractea) and tea tree (Melaleuca alternifolia) essential oils can attract birds to newly installed nest boxes. Twenty-four nest boxes received three scent treatments (eucalypt, tea tree, control) for 10 days each using a Latin-square design. Bird visitation was recorded using camera traps. Eastern Rosellas (Platycercus eximius) visited the nest boxes the most (1,454 visits) and were therefore the focus of the study. Eastern Rosellas did not change their behaviours in response to the eucalypt scent in nest boxes: there was no difference in visitation, duration of visits or nest box inspection behaviour between nest boxes with eucalypt scent and those with the control scent. However, Eastern Rosellas visited nest boxes with tea tree scent less frequently and spent less time at these boxes than those with the control scent. The mean time that Eastern Rosellas spent inspecting boxes slightly increased over the 10-day period following scent placement at boxes with control and eucalypt scents, while it sharply decreased at boxes with tea tree scent. This is the first study demonstrating that an Australian bird detected and behaved differently in response to plant volatiles. The use of scents may offer opportunities to not only attract, but potentially also deter certain birds from using particular hollows.