Treetop research to help protect swift parrots
Sunday, January 8, 2012 at 16:07 
ANU researcher Dejan Stojanovic is fitting tracking devices to adult swift parrots to see how wide they range for food. ABC Fiona, BlackwoodIt is feared habitat loss across eastern Australia is putting even greater pressure on swift parrot, a bird already on the brink.
The swift parrot is down to about 1,200 breeding pairs.
The birds raise their young in Tasmania but the search for food and shelter eventually takes them across Bass Strait.
One researcher has taken to the trees tops in Tasmania to get a better idea of where the endangered species lives, eats and breeds.
Dejan Stojanovic from the Australian National University is one of the first people to study the species.
He is climbing trees in Tasmania to discover more about the parrots.
The species is in trouble because it only nests in hollows found in old trees and the eucalypts it feeds on flower irregularly.
He says they are under pressure through loss of habitat.
He fears agriculture, logging and urban development is affecting habitat and food availability.
"We're concerned that it might be death by a thousand cuts for the swift parrot."
Mr Stojanovic will fit adult birds with tracking devices to see how far they will go to feed their young.
"I'm trying to see whether does the amount of bush actually correspond to chick health because the parents are being forced to work much harder when we remove the bush."
"There's actually half as many swift parrots in the wild as there are tigers so they're actually really in quite a bit of trouble and the thing is we don't even know necessarily what the swift parrot needs in the landscape but unfortunately for them we're using the landscape in a way which may not necessarily be compatible with conserving the species."