Successful breeding season recorded for Tasmania’s endangered Orange-bellied Parrots

Tasmania’s Orange-bellied parrot captive breeding program has recorded a successful 2019-20 breeding season, both in the wild and at the captive facility at Five Mile Beach.

Twenty-three birds survived their migration to and from the mainland, returning to their only wild breeding site at Melaleuca in the state’s southwest in time for the breeding season. These were supplemented with the release of a further 34 adult birds at Melaleuca.

Tasmania Minister for Environment and Parks, Roger Jaensch advises “The breeding program plays a very important role in protecting and growing the population of this critically endangered species, and we are doing what we can to protect our threatened species and ensure their survival for the future.”

Twenty nests were recorded at Melaleuca over the breeding season, with 37 fledglings produced from a mix of wild-born and captive-bred parents.

Forty-nine captive-bred juveniles, from Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment (DPIPWE) and national recovery team partners Moonlit Sanctuary and Healesville Sanctuary, were successfully released at Melaleuca in February and March 2020 to join the surviving adults and wild-born fledglings on their migration to the mainland at the end of the season.

The Tasmanian program works in collaboration with national Orange-bellied Parrot Recovery Team partners to monitor the wild bird population, increase the captive population and manage habitat to help increase the wild population.

Planning for the 2020-21 breeding season has begun and the program hopes to see an increase in the number of birds returning to Tasmania this spring.

Image of Orange Bellied Parrot courtesy of Visit Cradle Coast. Credit Cordell Richardson in Melaleuca, Tasmania.