Hello Greg, Dion and others,
Recent birding-aus communications querying the existence of Coxen's
Fig-Parrot have been brought to my attention and, as Queensland coordinator
of the recovery program, I thought a reply would be worthwhile.
Please be assured Coxen's Fig-Parrot is not extinct. Had we suspected it to
be so, the recovery team would have been wound up long ago and directed its
energies elsewhere. It is incorrect to assume that simply because no records
of Coxen's Fig-Parrot have been publicised, none has been made. In fact, the
recovery team has been conducting survey work and steadily compiling and
investigating numerous records made over the last decade, with the most
recent confirmed report being received within the last few months.
Admittedly, the recovery team must accept some blame for the present
misconceptions about the status of this critically endangered bird. This is
because we have deliberately chosen not to highlight sightings of the bird
due to the sensitivity of some information relating to nesting localities.
This decision was driven by a fear of losing adults, eggs or young to
poachers or egg collectors. In hindsight, our approach was probably overly
cautious and may have served to harm public perceptions about the bird, in
so doing potentially undermining the community education and awareness
programs and habitat rehabilitation projects being conducted simultaneously.
Our (perhaps flawed) thinking was that publication of information on the
current distribution, status and ecology of Coxen's Fig-Parrot should not
occur until we have photographs of the birds themselves. Unfortunately, this
photographic evidence of birds still eludes us, although we do have
photographic documentation of nest holes made by this subspecies.
To help dispel the myth about the demise of Coxen's Fig-Parrot, here is a
brief summary of recent records (ordered in reverse chronology) made by
professional ornithologists/naturalists you should know:
1. John Young: 23 Sept 2004, 1 bird observed perched in tree and heard
flying off, Baroon Pocket Dam, Montville, SEQ (Blackall Range)
2. Conrad Hoskin (University of Qld): 8 Aug 2004, 2 birds seen and heard
flying across canopy gap and 1 bird seen flying back 25 mins later,
Cunningham's Gap, Main Range National Park, SEQ (Great Dividing Range)
3. Terry Reis (Griffith University): 23 Dec 2002, 2 birds seen and heard
flying almost directly overhead, Imbil State Forest, SEQ (Conondale Range
area)
4. Lloyd Nielsen & others: 6 Nov 2002, 1 or 2 birds heard calling from
within rainforest canopy, Lamington National Park, SEQ (McPherson Range)
5. Greg Czechura (Qld Museum): 9 April 2002, 4 birds seen in flight,
Beerwah
Forest Reserve, SEQ (foot of Blackall Range)
6. Ian Gynther (QPWS) & Chris Cameron: 5 Dec 2001, 1 bird heard calling
from
canopy of emergent fig, Mary Cairncross Scenic Reserve, Maleny, SEQ
(Blackall Range)
7. Lloyd Nielsen, Bill McDonald (Qld Herbarium) & others: 17 Nov 1998, 1
bird heard calling in flight within or just above rainforest canopy;
separate call record of 1 bird in flight above canopy made 2 hrs later and
approx. 1km from first record, Lamington National Park, SEQ (McPherson
Range)
8. John Young, David Charley (NSW NPWS) & Tim O'Reilly: 3 Sept 1997, 2
birds
seen and heard in flight, Main Range National Park, SEQ (Great Dividing
Range)
9. Greg Czechura (Qld Museum): 27 May 1997, 1 bird seen and heard in a
tree,
summit of Mt Borumba, Imbil State Forest, SEQ (Conondale Range area)
10. John Young: 17 August 1996, irrefutable evidence of nest construction
activity from current season (photographed), Lamington National Park, SEQ
(McPherson Range)
11. Mark Clayton, Ian Mason & Richard Schodde (all CSIRO/ANWC): Jan-Feb
1995, 1-2 birds heard calling in flight, Mebbin State Forest, NE NSW.
12. Mark Clayton, Ian Mason & Richard Schodde (all CSIRO/ANWC): Jan-Feb
1995, 1-2 birds heard calling in flight, Boomerang Falls, Whian Whian State
Forest, NE NSW.
As previous contributors have pointed out, the calls of fig-parrots are both
distinctive and unmistakeable. All of the above records are by people who
are thoroughly familiar with fig-parrot vocalisations as a result of living
or working in north Queensland.
To further emphasise the point, recovery team surveys have now located
evidence of Coxen's Fig-Parrot breeding activity in the form of completed or
partially excavated nest holes at eight localities across the two range
States. The provenance of these excavations is by no means dubious as
fig-parrots leave diagnostic evidence of their nesting attempts and this is
readily identifiable by experienced observers. These localities are as
follows:
QUEENSLAND
Lamington National Park (August 1996)
Kenilworth State Forest (August 1996)
Conondale National Park (October 1998)
Kin Kin area, Noosa hinterland (February 2001)
NEW SOUTH WALES
Mebbin State Forest (August 1996)
Tooloom National Park (August 1996)
Near Tyalgum (August 1996)
Toonumbar National Park (September 1997)
In addition, scores of credible sighting reports have now been documented by
the recovery team from experienced observers and other members of the
community, ranging from north of Bundaberg south into New South Wales.
Clusters of sightings by numerous independent observers are notable in the
Greater Bundaberg area, the Kin Kin district, the Maleny-Bellthorpe area and
at Lamington National Park in Queensland.
I am confident the sighting reported by Graeme Armstrong and Lyndy Marshall
along the Burnett River in the footprint of the future Paradise Dam was a
Coxen's Fig-Parrot and not a Little Lorikeet as suggested by Greg Roberts.
Such records are not simply accepted by the recovery team at face value. The
observers provided me with a detailed description and sketch, including such
features as short, stocky body build, plumage characters, tail-less
appearance and relatively large-sized bill that enabled Little Lorikeet to
be ruled out comprehensively. Also, I have observed Red-browed (or
Macleay's) Fig-Parrots feeding in Callistemon and Melaleuca on several
occasions and so surmise that the same trees may constitute part of the diet
of the southern subspecies. I have never seen Little Lorikeets feeding in
Callistemon.
Important lessons about the habitat utilisation of Coxen's Fig-Parrot have
been learned by the recovery team during a decade of compiling confirmed and
credible sighting reports. The prevailing view that the southern subspecies
is a bird purely of the rainforest no longer appears valid. Records now
indicate it also occurs in sub-littoral mixed scrub (Melaleuca and Livistona
palm open forest with scattered figs), open forest, riparian corridors in
woodland, open woodland and cleared land, as well as occasionally in
agricultural or residential land with suitable food trees. The presence of
food resources (not just figs) appears to be the primary factor governing
the bird's occurrence. As a consequence, the Paradise Dam record came as no
surprise because it was not the first sighting from 'essentially cleared
farmland with limited vegetation along the river'. The Burnett River's banks
possess abundant Callistemon and sandpaper figs.
The fact that Coxen's Fig-Parrots themselves are wellnigh impossible to
locate by experienced observers, even during targeted surveys, is simply a
result of the subspecies' extreme rarity, coupled with its typically cryptic
behaviour and nomadic habits. By comparison, northern subspecies of
fig-parrots are downright abundant. Best guesses put the population of
Coxen's Fig-Parrot at no more than 50-100 pairs, with an overall extent of
distribution of 70,000 square kilometres, i.e. they are needles in the
proverbial haystack. That doesn't mean the needles don't exist though -
we've just got to be sharper to find them. So if you happen to be within the
distributional envelope for this bird, please be alert to its possible
presence and do keep an open mind about the variety of habitat types the
bird occupies. I would encourage you to forward all sighting reports to me
or to my NSW counterpart John Martindale at
I hope this information may go some way towards eliminating any scepticism
about the continued existence of Coxen's Fig-Parrot.
Sorry that this message went on a bit!
Cheers,
Ian
Dr Ian Gynther
Senior Conservation Officer
Conservation Services
Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service
Southern Region
PO Box 64, Bellbowrie QLD 4070
Tel: (07) 3202 0250; Fax: (07) 3202 6844
E-mail:
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