South-west search for rare parrot
Saturday, July 23, 2011 at 6:11 SOUTH-WEST volunteers will scour the coast for the critically endangered Orange-bellied Parrot as part of a national survey this weekend.
With estimates of less than 50 birds remaining in the wild, the Orange-bellied Parrot National Recovery Team hopes to locate a significant proportion of the population to aid their winter survival on the mainland.
DSE biodiversity officer Rachel Pritchard said there were 20 to 30 active volunteers in south-west Victoria from Warrnambool to Nelson.
"There was a sighting from some volunteers of birds west of Warrnambool in late June this year but we haven't managed to see them again since," Ms Pritchard said.
"It's really rare to see them anywhere now because there are so few left in the wild."
She said birds were found in coastal wetlands and nearby paddocks and sand dunes usually no more than five kilometres in-land.
"If they get heavy rains the food they eat is underwater and they move on to another area where food is more available.
"Surveying for orange-bellied parrots is a tough job because they are hard to find, and it will be cold and probably wet out there so we really appreciate the work that is put into the survey by our skilled volunteers.
"Over 100 volunteers are expected to spend the weekend searching islands, salt marshes, sewerage farms, paddocks and golf courses, all places the bird has been seen before.
"Our monitoring on the Tasmanian breeding grounds indicates that the wild population of orange-bellied parrots had declined in recent years but the most recent breeding season was encouragingly productive."