Swift parrot
Swift parrot | |
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South Bruny, Tasmania | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Psittaciformes |
Family: | Psittaculidae |
Tribe: | Platycercini |
Genus: | Lathamus Lesson , 1830
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Species: | L. discolor
|
Binomial name | |
Lathamus discolor (Shaw, 1790)
| |
Distribution of the swift parrot From Atlas of Living Australia | |
Synonyms[2] | |
Psittacus discolor Shaw, 1790 |
The swift parrot (Lathamus discolor) is a species of
The species is
Habitat for the critically endangered swift parrot is being “knowingly destroyed” by logging because of government failures to manage the species’ survival.[8]
Taxonomy
The surgeon
A 2011 genetic study including
"Swift parrot" has been designated the official common name by the International Ornithologists' Union (IOC).[11]
Description
The swift parrot is about 25 centimetres (10 in) long and has long pointed wings and long tapering tail feathers.[12] It is mainly green with bluish crown and red on the face above and below the beak. The adult female is slightly duller, and the juvenile has a dark brown iris and a pale orange bill.[13] The forehead to throat is crimson and there is also crimson patch at the top, edge of the wing. They are noisy, always active and showy, and are very fast with their direct flight.[14]
Breeding
The species breeds in Tasmania from September to February. It nests in tree cavities, but is highly selective in the types of cavities it uses as nests. It prefers cavities with small entrances, deep chambers and wide floors.[15] Tree cavities with these traits are rare and comprise only 5% of the available cavities in Tasmanian forests.[15] These cavities are more likely to occur in large trees.[16] These characteristics of tree cavities are important for passive defense of their nests against native Tasmanian predators.[17] Tree cavities suitable for nesting are highly vulnerable to disturbance. Wildfire caused the collapse of 62.8% of known swift parrot nest cavities (and 48.6% of nesting trees).[18] Deforestation (primarily driven by native forest logging) has been an important contemporary cause of habitat loss for swift parrots. In just one area of swift parrot breeding habitat, the southern forests, 33% of total forest cover was lost/disturbed by logging between 1996–2016, and 23% of potential swift parrot nesting habitat was logged over this same time period.[4] The local extent of deforestation is also positively correlated with other threats to the parrots like predation by sugar gliders.[19]
Swift parrots select where to breed in Tasmania based on the local availability of both food and nesting sites.[20][21] The parrots settle wherever in Tasmania their preferred food (nectar from flowering Eucalyptus globulus and Eucalyptus ovata) is abundant, but birds can only breed where suitable nesting sites are also available nearby.[21] Because swift parrots prefer to breed in the most resource rich patch of food, they are able to rear their nestlings in the 'best' conditions each year.[22] Successful swift parrot nests have a mean clutch sizes of 3.8 eggs, and produce 3.2 fledglings, equating to breeding success of 86.9%.[22] However sugar gliders, which are introduced to Tasmania,[23] are a major nest predator of swift parrots.[19] Sugar gliders can result in locally severe parrot nesting failure, and there is a positive relationship between the severity of glider predation and land-cover of mature forest within 500m of a swift parrot nest.[19] This relationship means that in locations where forest cover is low and disturbed, nest failure of swift parrots can be as high as 100%.[19] Sugar gliders are tolerant of forest disturbance, and have high rates of occupancy of swift parrot habitat in Tasmania.[24] On offshore islands where sugar gliders are absent, swift parrots have higher breeding success.[19]
Distribution
Genetic evidence has shown that the swift parrot is a single, genetically mixed and nomadic population that moves around the landscape each year.[25] Because they are nomadic, swift parrots can occur across a very large potential area, but settlement at a given location depends on the local availability of food.[20][26] However, in the Tasmanian breeding range, swift parrots need both food and suitable nesting sites to occur in close proximity in order to nest at a given site.[21] The swift parrot migrates each year across Bass Strait between Tasmania and the mainland of Australia. They arrive in Tasmania during September and return to south-eastern Australia during March and April.[14] They can be found as far north as south-eastern Queensland and as far west as Adelaide in South Australia, although recent sightings have been restricted to the south-eastern part of the state. Because swift parrots are nomadic migrants,[20] their occurrence at any one location are difficult to predict. Although they will repeatedly return to the same locations, local occurrence may only happen intermittently depending on whether or not food (flowering trees) is available in a given year.[20]
Important Bird Areas
BirdLife International has identified the following sites as being important for swift parrots:[27]
- New South Wales
- Brisbane Water
- Capertee Valley
- Hastings-Macleay
- Hunter Valley
- Lake Macquarie
- Richmond Woodlands
- South-west Slopes of NSW
- Tuggerah
- Ulladulla to Merimbula
- Victoria
- Bendigo Box-Ironbark Region
- Maryborough-Dunolly Box-Ironbark Region
- Puckapunyal
- Rushworth Box-Ironbark Region
- St Arnaud Box-Ironbark Region
- Warby-Chiltern Box-Ironbark Region
- Tasmania
Habitat
Usually inhabiting: forests, woodlands, agricultural land and plantations, and also in urban areas.
Diet
Swift parrots are primarily nectar feeders, preferring nectar from flowering Eucalyptus spp. In Tasmania, their settlement of breeding habitat is regulated by the occurrence of flowering in their two main food trees Eucalyptus globulus and Eucalyptus ovata.[20] In the winter, their habitat use is broader, with foraging occurring on a range of flowering Eucalyptus spp. across southeastern mainland Australia.[26][28]
Conservation status
Modelling of
Given the severity of deforestation across the breeding range,[4] and the relationship between deforestation and sugar glider predation intensity,[19] habitat loss in critical breeding areas of Tasmania may be the species most severe threat. Unfortunately, there is evidence that weak and ineffective policy for protection of threatened species in Tasmania's logged forests is likely to continue to threaten the swift parrot into the future.[31]
Matthew Webb and Dejan Stojanovic, two of the Eureka prize finalists from the Australian National University’s Difficult Bird Research Group, say governments have stalled on management plans that would protect known feeding and nesting habitat in Tasmania.[32] The researchers analysed logging in Tasmania’s southern forests during the 20-year course of the previous regional forest agreement. They found that a third of the eucalypt forest in this area had been logged between 1997 and 2016 and a quarter of old growth trees that provide nesting habitat for swift parrots had been cleared. “It is very clear that critical breeding habitat is being logged and that current logging regimes are not sustainable,” the paper states.
Australia
Swift parrots are listed as Endangered on the Australian Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act), which has been criticised for failing to protect them and other threatened species.[33]
Victoria
The swift parrot is listed as threatened on the Victorian
- On the 2007 advisory list of threatened vertebrate fauna in Victoria, the swift parrot was listed as Endangered.[36]
References
- . Retrieved 12 November 2021.
- ^ Australian Biological Resources Study (7 October 2015). "Species Lathamus discolor (Shaw, 1790)". Australian Faunal Directory. Canberra, Australian Capital Territory: Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, Australian Government. Retrieved 20 September 2021.
- ^ ISSN 0006-3207.
- ^ ISSN 2204-4604.
- ^ ISSN 1469-1795.
- ^ PMID 38524913.
- ^ PMID 30511387.
- ISSN 2204-4604.
- ^ White, John (1790). Journal of a Voyage to New South Wales with Sixty-five Plates of Non-descript Animals, Birds, Lizards, Serpents, Curious Cones of Trees and Other Natural Productions. Debrett. pp. 263.
- PMID 21453777.
- ^ Gill, Frank; Donsker, David, eds. (2021). "Parrots, Cockatoos". World Bird List Version 11.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 19 September 2021.
- )
- ^ "Swift Parrot - BirdLife Species Factsheet". BirdLife International. 2008.
- ^ OCLC 57893782.
- ^ S2CID 86704760.
- S2CID 86262692.
- S2CID 89639261.
- ISSN 0378-1127.
- ^ ISSN 1472-4642.
- ^ ISSN 0006-3207.
- ^ PMID 28130909.
- ^ PMID 25973857.
- ISSN 1472-4642.
- .
- ^ ISSN 1469-1795.
- ^ S2CID 86546571.
- ^ "BirdLife International". BirdLife International. Retrieved 9 December 2022.
- ISSN 2204-4604.
- ^ Garnett ST, Szabo JK,Dutson G. (2011) Action Plan for Australian Birds 2010. CSIRO, Melbourne
- ^ Saunders DL,Tzaros C (2011) National Recovery Plan for the Swift Parrot Lathamus discolor. Birds Australia, Melbourne
- ^ "Pulling a Swiftie". Environment Tasmania. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
- ^ "Logging 'destroying' swift parrot habitat as government delays action". the Guardian. 25 July 2018. Retrieved 28 December 2022.
- ^ Wiggins, Nick; Phillips, Keri (24 August 2020). "What this critically endangered bird tells us about Australia's failing environment protection laws". ABC News (Radio National: Rear Vision). Retrieved 25 August 2020.
- ^ Department of Sustainability and Environment, Victoria Archived 2005-07-18 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Department of Sustainability and Environment, Victoria Archived 2006-09-11 at the Wayback Machine
- ISBN 978-1-74208-039-0.
Further reading
Recent research findings
The swift parrot has been studied since 2009 by the Difficult Bird Research Group at the Fenner School of Environment and Society of The Australian National University. Below are their research findings:
- Webb MH, Holdsworth MC, Webb J (2012) "Nesting requirements of the endangered swift parrot (Lathamus discolor)". Emu 112:181–188.
- Stojanovic D, Webb MH, Roshier D, Saunders D, Heinsohn R (2012). "Ground-based survey methods both overestimate and underestimate the abundance of suitable tree-cavities for the endangered swift parrot". Emu - Austral Ornithology 112:350–356.
- Stojanovic D, Koch AJ, Webb M, Cunningham RB, Roshier D, Heinsohn R (2014). "Validation of a landscape-scale planning tool for cavity dependent wildlife". Austral Ecology 39:579–586.
- Stojanovic D, Webb MH, Alderman R, Porfirio LL, Heinsohn R, Beard K (2014). "Discovery of a novel predator reveals extreme but highly variable mortality for an endangered migratory bird". Diversity and Distributions 20:1200–1207.
- Saunders DL and Heinsohn R (2008). "Winter habitat use by the endangered, migratory swift parrot (Lathamus discolor) in New South Wales". Emu - Austral Ornithology 108:81–89.
- Webb MH, Wotherspoon S, Stojanovic D, Heinsohn R, Cunningham R, Bell P, Terauds A (2014). "Location matters: Using spatially explicit occupancy models to predict the distribution of the highly mobile, endangered swift parrot". Biological Conservation 176:99–108.
- Heinsohn R, Webb M, Lacy R, Terauds A, Alderman R, Stojanovic D (2015). "A severe predator-induced population decline predicted for endangered, migratory swift parrots (Lathamus discolor)". Biological Conservation 186:75–82.
- Stojanovic D, Terauds A, Westgate MJ, Webb MH, Roshier D, Heinsohn R (2015). Exploiting the richest patch has a fitness payoff for the migratory swift parrot". Journal of Animal Ecology 84:1194–1201.
- Stojanovic D, Webb Nee Voogdt J, Webb M, Cook H, Heinsohn R (2016). "Loss of habitat for a secondary cavity nesting bird after wildfire". Forest Ecology and Management 360:235–241.
- Saunders DL, Cunningham R, Wood J, Heinsohn R (2016). "Responses of Critically Endangered migratory Swift Parrots to variable winter drought". Emu - Austral Ornithology 116:350–359.
- Crates R, Rayner L, Stojanovic D, Webb M, Heinsohn R (2017). "Undetected Allee effects in Australia’s threatened birds: implications for conservation". Emu - Austral Ornithology 117:207–221.
- Stojanovic D, Rayner L, Webb M, Heinsohn R (2017). "Effect of nest cavity morphology on reproductive success of a critically endangered bird". Emu - Austral Ornithology 117:247–253.
- Webb MH, Terauds A, Tulloch A, Bell P, Stojanovic D, Heinsohn R (2017). "The importance of incorporating functional habitats into conservation planning for highly mobile species in dynamic systems". Conservation Biology 31:1018–1028.
- Allen M, Webb Matthew H, Alves F, Heinsohn R, Stojanovic D (2018). "Occupancy patterns of the introduced, predatory sugar glider in Tasmanian forests". Austral Ecology 43:470–475.
- Campbell CD, Sarre SD, Stojanovic D, Gruber B, Medlock K, Harris S, Macdonald AJ, Holleley CE (2018). "When is a native species invasive? Incursion of a novel predatory marsupial detected using molecular and historical data". Diversity and Distributions 24:831–840.
- Stojanovic D, Eyles S, Cook H, Alves F, Webb M, Heinsohn R (2018). "Photosensitive automated doors to exclude small nocturnal predators from nest boxes". Animal Conservation 22:297–301.
- Stojanovic D, Olah G, Webb M, Peakall R, Heinsohn R (2018). "Genetic evidence confirms severe extinction risk for critically endangered swift parrots: implications for conservation management". Animal Conservation 21:313–323.
- Heinsohn R, Olah G, Webb M, Peakall R, Stojanovic D (2019). "Sex ratio bias and shared paternity reduce individual fitness and population viability in a critically endangered parrot". Journal of Animal Ecology 88:502–510.
- Stojanovic D, Cook HCL, Sato C, Alves F, Harris G, Mckernan A, Rayner L, Webb MH, Sutherland WJ, Heinsohn R (2019). "Pre-emptive action as a measure for conserving nomadic species". The Journal of Wildlife Management 83:64–71.
- Webb MH, Heinsohn R, Sutherland WJ, Stojanovic D, Terauds A (2019). "An Empirical and Mechanistic Explanation of Abundance-Occupancy Relationships for a Critically Endangered Nomadic Migrant". The American Naturalist 193:59–69.
- Webb MH, Stojanovic D, Heinsohn R (2019). "Policy failure and conservation paralysis for the critically endangered swift parrot". Pacific Conservation Biology 25:116–123.
- Owens G, Heinsohn R, Eyles S, Stojanovic D (2020). "Automated broadcast of a predator call did not reduce predation pressure by Sugar Gliders on birds". Ecological Management & Restoration 21(3), 247–249.
- Olah G, Stojanovic D, Webb MH, Waples RS, Heinsohn R (2021). "Comparison of three techniques for genetic estimation of effective population size in a critically endangered parrot". Animal Conservation 24:491–498.
- Olah G, Waples RS, Stojanovic D (2024). "Influence of molecular marker type on estimating effective population size and other genetic parameters in a critically endangered parrot.". Ecology and Evolution 14(3):e11102.
External links
- Media related to Lathamus discolor at Wikimedia Commons
- Data related to Lathamus discolor at Wikispecies