The Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority is celebrating birds and bats in 2024 with the ‘Year of the Wing’ community awareness campaign.
This month, the critically endangered swift parrot is featured.
With around just 500 of these beautiful birds remaining in the wild, the ‘Swiftie’ is listed as critically endangered under the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.
Goulburn Broken CMA project officer Janice Mentiplay-Smith said over the cooler months, swift parrots made the journey from their summer breeding grounds in southern Tasmania to the forests of Victoria’s Goulburn Broken catchment and beyond.
“Their timing is perfect, as the autumn- and winter-flowering eucalyptus produce their flowers full of nectar,” Ms Mentiplay-Smith said.
“Of the 800 to 900 or so species and subspecies of eucalyptus in Australia, the Goulburn Broken catchment has a mix of trees favoured by the ‘Swiftie’, including grey box, white box, red box, red stringy bark and yellow box.”
Swift parrots nest and breed in Tasmania during the summer. They require deep nesting hollows in large old trees, either in the trunk or in the end of a branch.
This habitat can take up to 150 years to develop, which is time the swift parrot does not have. Swift parrots prefer natural nesting sites over artificial ones.
“The swift parrot is one of Australia’s most beautiful parrots, but is on a trajectory to extinction if numbers continue to plummet,” Ms Mentiplay-Smith said.
Birdlife Australia co-ordinates swift parrot search events, which are held at Benalla, Dookie, Euroa, Shepparton and other regional areas.
The next searches will be held between July 13 and August 25.
For more information, visit birdlife.org.au/events/swift-parrot-search/
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