The Orange-bellied Parrot is Australia’s most threatened bird. In 2018, only three wild females, and 11 wild males returned to breed in Tasmania (three pairs). The gender imbalance is due to predation of females while sitting on nests by introduced-to-Tasmania sugar gliders.

Source: the Difficult Bird Research Group

Orange-bellied Parrots are migratory, breeding in coastal south-west Tasmania and wintering along the southern coast of mainland Australia. They require tree hollows for nesting, but also need nesting locations to occur near coastal moorland where food-source plants exist.

A number of projects are underway to try and prevent the Orange-bellied Parrot from becoming extinct, including captive breeding programs, egg swaps – switching infertile wild-laid eggs with fertile captive-laid eggs, adding captive-laid eggs to wild clutches, swapping nestlings between wild nests to reduce competition for large clutches, food supplementation, nest box installation to increase nesting opportunities, and developing methods to exclude predators from entering nest boxes.

Source: the Difficult Bird Research Group

This will be a space to watch, with all fingers and toes crossed.

Here are some links to project web pages and associated research results:

The Difficult Bird Research Group‘s operation OBP, a crowdfunding campaign in 2017 and project information: https://www.pozible.com/project/operation-obp?fbclid=IwAR3gUd_HfZklMCqSlzT918z2JQkUfvFFT-LyuVMlKiqB_hkGg9bmMC-K050

Difficult Birds Research Group, Orange-Bellied Parrot: https://www.difficultbirds.com/orangebellied-parrot

Difficult Birds Research Group, Research Output: https://www.difficultbirds.com/research-output

Threatened Species Recovery Hub, Project 2.2.1 Saving the orange-bellied parrot Project web page: http://www.nespthreatenedspecies.edu.au/projects/saving-the-orange-bellied-parrot

Threatened Species Recovery Hub, Project 2.2.1 Saving the orange-bellied parrot Project Summary: http://www.nespthreatenedspecies.edu.au/2.2.1Orange-bellied%20parrot%20Project%20Summary%20Factsheet_V4.pdf

Birdlife Australia article ‘Orange-Bellied Parrot on a Wing and a Prayer’: https://birdlife.org.au/documents/OBP-wingspanarticle.pdf

Birdlife Australia, Orange-bellied Parrot Recovery: https://birdlife.org.au/projects/orange-bellied-parrot-recovery

Sydney Morning Herald article ‘On the frontline of the battle to save our most ‘difficult’ birds’: https://www.smh.com.au/national/on-the-frontline-of-the-battle-to-save-our-most-difficult-birds-20180725-p4ztiq.html

Photosensitive automated doors to exclude small nocturnal predators from nest boxes (2018). Authors: Stojanovic, Eyles, Cook, Alves, Webb & Heinsohn. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/582ea0d1579fb3ef8b09706d/t/5c17e0764fa51ae704e71ded/1545068664492/Stojanovic_et_al-2018-Animal_Conservation%281%29.pdf

Occupancy patterns of the introduced, predatory sugar glider in Tasmanian forests (2018). Authors: Allen, Webb, Alves, Heinsohn & Stojanovic. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/582ea0d1579fb3ef8b09706d/t/5a7a0eb50d9297e49c4bc98b/1517948599480/allen+et+al+sugar+glider+occupancy.pdf

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