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.
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.
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