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Vol 15 No 17
Swift action needed A endangered swift parrot that was found recently in Moorabool. Photo – David Whelan By Lachlan Ellis A critically endangered bird has been spotted in Moorabool, with the flock believed to contain around five per cent of the species’ total population. The swift parrot is found only in Australia, including parts of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania. According to BirdLife Australia, the latest research estimates the swift parrot population “could be as few as 300 birds”. Wildlife photographers Bernie McRitchie and David Whelan from Bacchus Marsh spotted three flocks containing around 50 birds in total in Moorabool bushland last Saturday – a find that Mr Whelan said was exciting, but also concerning, given the threats faced by the species. “It’s the second time we’ve found them locally. Bernie found the flocks on Saturday morning…it’s pretty special to have them
moving through the Moorabool landscape,” Mr Whelan told the Moorabool News. “On one level it’s an indication of how good the environment is. There’s fairly extensive remnants of the yellow gum stands they live in here in Moorabool…before European settlements those type of woodlands used to cover the whole area, but now there’s just patches of it left.” Mr Whelan said he believed that overhead high voltage powerline plans could pose a threat to the swift parrot, and five other local bird species, including the little eagle and the speckled warbler. “I’ve had a look on the Western Victoria Transmission Network Project site…the swift parrots we found weren’t directly in the area where the planned corridor is, but they’re close to it. But where we saw them a couple of years ago is an area that’s planned to be cleared for the corridors,” Mr Whelan said.
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“Animals and plants have needs too…we share the environment with them. It’s really important not to think of ourselves as above nature, we’re all interconnected.” Chris Timewell, BirdLife Australia’s Project Coordinator for Victoria, said the swift parrot was a species in dire need of protection. “Based on research published last year, the total population of Swift Parrots is estimated to be no more than 1,000 birds – and it continues to decline. As such, the 50 birds recently detected foraging in native woodlands in the Moorabool Shire represents at least five per cent of all individuals – a significant proportion of this threatened species,” Mr Timewell said. “It is listed as ‘critically endangered’ on the federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act – the highest threat status possible – which is for species that will go extinct in the near future if the
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current trends continue. It is also listed as threatened on the Victorian Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988. It is one of the highest priority species that BirdLife Australia is acting to conserve.” Swift parrots breed in Tasmania in the summer, living in the hollows of the blue gum forests of Tasmania. They fly across Bass Strait in winter to forage on flowering eucalypts in the open box-ironbark forests of the Australian mainland. Many of the forests swift parrots rely on are now being logged, with more than 80 per cent of its original mainland habitat having been cleared since European settlement. Sugar gliders are also a major threat, entering the hollows and eating young swift parrots. For more information on the swift parrot, and the conservation work BirdLife Australia does, visit birdlife.org.au
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