Re: Orange-bellied Parrot population

On behalf of colleague Peter Menkhorst, I post the following for the information of Edwin and other b-a list members.

Let's hope we see some obp's this weekend on the winter count for Neophema's.

cheers, Martin

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Edwin Vella asked:

Does anyone have a current estimate of the existing population of Orange-bellied Parrots? Are they in decline judging by fewer recent reports for this species?

Peter Menkhorst from the OBP recovery team provided the following answer:

The evidence provided by resighting colour-banded birds at the major breeding area at Melaleuca, sw Tasmania, indicates that the population is fairly stable at about 150-200 individuals in the post-breeding population, ie adults plus juveniles.

However, our ability to find birds on the mainland in winter has declined markedly over the past 15 years, to the extent that we now detect only about 10-20 % of the summer population during winter. The stability in the summer data, and the proportion of unbanded birds in the winter population, gives us reassurance that the winter count data do not reflect the actual population level.

The decline in the rate of mainland sightings seems to be related to a switch in habitat preference away from the traditional saltmarsh areas around western Port Phillip and the Bellarine Peninsula to usage of small patches of saline wetlands and weedy patches in paddocks and grasslands immediately inland of the coast, mostly between Melbourne and the mouth of the Murray River, but also occasionally eastwards through Gippsland and even as far north as Sydney, and as far west as Spencer Gulf, SA.

During winter, OBPs occur in small mobile groups, shifting feeding areas according to food availability, which is influenced by water levels in the wetlands amongst other factors such as the seeding sequence of their food plants. This behaviour and habitat selection makes them much more difficult to find and monitor - for example they are often on private land rather than in the Nature Conservation Reserves where flocks used to occur regularly. They can also be mixed in with flocks of Blue-winged Parrots, although this is not common.

As you can imagine, finding 150 small parrots within a 1500 km stretch of coast is not an easy task. Never-the-less, we need to know where birds are so that we can try to conserve the habitats that they are selecting. Hence we continue to organise the annual winter search weekends which rely on a dedicated band of birders coordinated by a project officer at Birds Australia. The 2005 mid-winter count takes place on Sunday so if anybody feels like checking their local saltmarsh or saline wetlands within 10 km of the coast please do so, and please notify Dean Ingwersen at Birds Australia of the result, even if negative [ph 03 98822622]. If you wish to take part in the September count please contact Dean during August so that you can be officially assigned a search area.

We also wish to stress the value of checking any potential habitat at any time between April and October - we don't know where most of the birds are at this time so we need to search 'outside the square'. Please inform Dean at Birds Australia of any searches that you undertake, including those where no parrots are found. We are interested in all sightings of all coastal Neophema species - OBP, Blue-winged, Elegant and Rock Parrots.

Peter Menkhorst
Threatened Species and Communities Section
Biodiversity and Natural Resources Division
Department of Sustainability and Environment
PO Box 500
East Melbourne VIC 3002

ph 03 9637 9865
0439 611 431



Martin O'Brien
Melbourne