Not so dead parrot: orange bellied parrot steps back from brink

Amid the doom and gloom of species extinctions, one little bird with a bright orange spot has defied the odds to take a step back from the brink of oblivion.

An orange-bellied parrot. Picture: Dejan Stojanovic

Amid the doom and gloom of ­species extinctions, one little bird with a bright orange spot has ­defied the odds to take a step back from the brink of oblivion.

In 2016-17, it seemed the ­orange-bellied parrot was about to disappear for good.

That summer, only 17 birds made it back to their Tasmanian breeding grounds after winter migration to the mainland; most ominously only four females.

The chatty, cheerful species was several feral cats or wind turbines away from extinction. Those trying to save it were ­depressed; critics called their ­efforts a waste of time.

This summer, for the third year running, more than 50 “OBPs” are expected back at Melaleuca, in Tasmania’s South West ­Wilderness.

Final numbers will not be known until the stragglers arrive in mid-December, but already about 40 are confirmed, a figure tipped to rise to 50 next week.

Despite a setback of high mortalities pre-migration last summer, and the ongoing precariousness of a species counted in dozens rather than thousands, OBP watchers are buoyed.

“We are getting to the point where the recovery and conservation of the OBP will join those global success stories of extinctions prevented,” said Eric Woehler, convener of BirdLife Tasmania.

“This is particularly important because there are only three ­species of migratory parrot in the world: the OBP, the swift parrot and the blue wing parrot. All only occur in Tasmania.”

The Tasmanian government’s OBP program manager, Paul Black, said the turnaround from “pretty grim” in 2016-17 to “positive” five years later was down to several breakthroughs.

First was the realisation that juveniles – young turks released at just nine weeks old – survived migration much better than captive-bred adult OBPs.

This prompted a “tweak” to the captive breeding program.

“We decided to have a greater percentage of the birds that were released being juveniles,“ Mr Black said. “That’s where the really big turnaround has come.”

The program, which breeds OBPs at specially designed aviaries east of Hobart, now releases about 30 adults in the spring, for breeding, and 50 juveniles in summer/late autumn, to bolster the migration flock.

Another key factor was the realisation that controlled burning at Melaleuca stimulated OBPs’ natural food source.

“There’s a suite of small herbs that they feed on, so what you are doing (by burning) is reducing the buttongrass and other shrubs and promoting the growth and germination of these other smaller plants,” Mr Black said.

“They are ground feeders and this opens the area up so they can see the food and get to the food more easily.”

As well as controlling predators and adding more nesting boxes at Melaleuca, the Tasmanian program is investigating setting up a second breeding site in the state’s southwest.

Work is also under way on a transmitter small enough to safely attach to the birds, to track individuals during migration.

This would reveal where so many are killed during their ­migration and wintering in coastal South Australia and Victoria.

Suspects include wind farms, feral and natural predators, and urban sprawl destroying habitat.

“We need at least 500 before we can exhale and un-grit our teeth,” said leading researcher Dejan Stojanovic.