Swift Parrot and Regent Honeyeater update 2015
Posted on 14 January, 2016 by Tanya Loos
In the last couple of days, ABC Hobart has reported that this summer’s baby Swift Parrots have nearly all left Bruny Island in southern Tasmania to begin their migration to mainland Australia.
Dr Dejan Stojanovic, who has been monitoring the parrots, said the birds would fly over Tasmania first before heading north. The young “swifties” can be distinguished from the adults by their calls. For more information and to hear the calls, read the article here
These young Swift Parrots face many challenges. Photo by Dejan Stojanovic
Each year for the past decade or so, BirdLife Australia have coordinated special survey weekends on mainland Australia for the migratory Swift Parrot and the nomadic Regent Honeyeaters. One survey weekend is held in mid-May each year, and the other in early August. An update from BirdLife details the findings from the last survey season for these two Critically Endangered woodland birds. For the full report, click on the link to see the Swift Parrot Regent Honeyeater 2015 update, or you can read the summary I have prepared below.
Swift Parrots
Much valued volunteers from the ACT, NSW and here in Victoria participated in the counts, including the Castlemaine Field Naturalists Club and a number of other swiftie devotees we have locally. In central Victoria, the parrots were reported at Muckleford, Kyneton and the Greater Bendigo National Park.
The average flock size across their entire mainland range was small – generally between 1 to 40 birds – although in NSW one flock was observed with over 100 individuals!
The numbers of Swift Parrots found on the two dedicated survey weekends were low during 2015, despite a similar survey effort compared to previous year. In other years with similar low numbers of Swift Parrots on the survey weekends (e.g. 2009 and 2012), large groups were eventually located later in the season. This was not the case for 2015, where low numbers of Swift Parrots were reported throughout their mainland range across the whole period.
These findings support the recent uplisting of the Swift Parrot from Endangered to Critically Endangered under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. The threats they face in Tasmania, including continued logging of their breeding habitat and predation by the introduced Sugar Glider, coupled with ongoing drought in their winter feeding grounds on the mainland are hastening the decline of this very special parrot.
Connecting Country looks forward very much to the May 2016 Swift Parrot surveys, as recording where the birds are feeding and the numbers of birds is critical to the recovery effort. Thanks to all those who participated in 2015.
Regent Honeyeaters
The Regent Honeyeater was once a widespread species and moderately common across Victoria, including central Victoria. A blossom nomad, the distinctive honeyeaters would follow the flowering of the ironbarks and the Yellow Box trees across the great woodlands that once covered Victoria and NSW. These days, the picture is very different, with one sole wild Regent Honeyeater reported from Victoria in the 2015 year. They are doing a little better in NSW, with over 100 wild individuals detected.
The Regent Honeyeater is the subject of an intensive recovery program, involving a captive bred population, where adults are released into prime Regent habitat around Chiltern in north-eastern Victoria. Some 77 individuals were released in the Chiltern-Mt Pilot National Park, and then monitored very closely through the use of radio transmitters. Happily the survival rates have been excellent, and breeding has occurred! One fledgeling raised by captive bred parents is still going strong months later – and named Lucky as he narrowly escaped being eaten by a Magpie! This incredible program is described in detail here.
Tanya Loos, 14 Jan 2016.
Lucky, a young Regent Honeyeater- 28 days post-fledging. Photo by Graham Watson.
Beekeepers have known for a very long time that it is the oldest & largest trees that produce, by far, the majority of the nectar flow. We can’t plant big trees. But perhaps we can promote their development (get the young trees into the ‘big tree’ cohort sooner). Much of the remnant forest in Central Victoria has a very high density of saplings (regrowth from former forestry & clearing). They’re in massive competition with each other & this retards the growth of each sapling (or resprout). Careful thinning would enable the saplings left behind to grow quicker and become big veterans sooner. It would also return some woody logs to the ground layer (improving habitat for small mammals, such as Tuans). It’s worth considering.