Eastern Ground Parrot (Pezoporus wallicus)

Posted on September 17, 2014 by Tara

The Eastern Ground Parrot (Pezoporus wallicus) of Australia is one of only three ground-dwelling parrots in Australia, the others being its closest relatives, the Western Ground Parrot (Pezoporus flaviventris) and the extremely rare Night Parrot (Pezoporus occidentalis).

Eastern Ground Parrot photo from Wikipedia

I took these photos in Strahan and Melaleuca. I wasn’t fast enough to get a clear shot.

You will usually have to flush a Ground Parrot to see it. This means walking carefully through the bush where they are known to live and watching for them. When disturbed, a ground parrot flies swiftly just above the ground before dropping back into the vegetation. The presence of the bird is often only revealed by its characteristic dusk and dawn call, a clear whistling sequence of notes which rise in pitch before fading. It is silent in flight. Please do not harass a Ground Parrot. Once you flush one, get your camera ready, walk slowly towards where he landed and he will flush again. Get your photo, then leave the bird alone.

The Ground Parrot is found in scattered populations along the east coast of Australia, from south-east coastal Queensland and in pockets in north-east and southern New South Wales, through to coastal areas of Gippsland in Victoria and the islands of the Bass Strait to its stronghold in Tasmania. The most reliable place to see them is in Strahan either near the old airport or near the Wilderness Lodge.

Blue dots are Strahan & Melaleuca – best places to see Eastern Ground Parrots

LEARN MORE ABOUT EASTERN GROUND PARROTS

Wikipedia

World Parrot Trust

Birdlife

Tasmania Parks & Wildlife

NSW Environment

Biodiversity Australia

VIDEOS

Unfortunately there aren’t any videos of Eastern Ground Parrots on YouTube where I can embed them here. There are a few short clips filmed at Strahan on IBC but you need to view them over there.

A Surprise Flushing Of Eastern Ground Parrots

Posted on September 16, 2014 by Tara

Our Melaleuca guide had told us to be at the boat dock at a specific time which I can’t remember, around 11am so we reluctantly left the OBPs and headed off down the path leading to the dock. There were some informative signs along the way to tell you about the local birds which is great because most people who do this trip are not as bird crazy as I am! It’s very educational!

As we walked along the raised wooden footpath, all of a sudden an Eastern Ground Parrot flushed and flew about 10 meters away, landing in the tall grass. I grabbed my camera and slowly walked in his direction. He flushed again and I frantically grabbed some shots. They aren’t great shots but at least I got to see him! He went further away and I decided not to follow as I didn’t want to upset him.

We were the first to arrive at the dock so waited for the others while enjoying the scenery. As I watched the others approach, no one else managed to flush a Ground Parrot.

The boat ride took us through spectacular scenery to a small beach where lunch was served.

Even though it was the first day of autumn, it was freezing out there so we were glad we had borrowed jackets from Par Avion. After lunch, the boat took us back to the dock. No more Ground Parrots so we retraced our steps to the OBP hide to spend some more quality time with them before the “normal” tourists showed up.

Beautiful Firetail (Stagonopleura bella)

Posted on September 13, 2014 by Tara

Don’t call them vain, they didn’t ask to be called Beautiful Firetails……………..even though they are!

The beautiful firetail (Stagonopleura bella) is a common species of estrildid finch found in Australia. It has an estimated global extent of occurrence of 1,000,000 km². The species inhabits temperate shrubland habitats in Australia. The ones in the photos were seen in Melaleuca sharing the Orange-bellied Parrots’ food. The beautiful firetail is endemic in Southeastern Australia. Its distribution range extends from Newcastle to Kangaroo Island, however, the bird is most prolific in Tasmania and off-shore islands. It lives in coastal heathland, forests and shrubbery, never far from water. Its preference for near water habitats was shown in a study of its occurrence in intact forest areas of the Victorian Central Highlands, where it was almost exclusively found in riparian habitat. Doing the Melaleuca trip with Par Avion is a great way to see them.

LEARN MORE ABOUT BEAUTIFUL FIRETAILS

Tasmanian Parks & Wildlife

VIDEO

Mike Grant has some stunning up close footage of Beautiful Firetails on YouTube.

A Magical Encounter With Orange-bellied Parrots

Posted on September 12, 2014 by Tara

Melaleuca is by far the easiest place to see these critically endangered little parrots. Orange-bellied Parrots (OBPs) are still fewer than 50 in the wild. Last year, some captive bred OBPs were released at Melaleuca in hopes that they would breed and they did! We are now eagerly awaiting more news when the OBPs start returning to Melaueca in the spring. For more updates, follow Save the Orange-bellied Parrot on Facebook.

When you take the Par Avion trip, most people will take off on a nature hike with their pilot/guide. We wanted to spend as much time as possible with the OBPs so our guide showed us to the path leading to the bird hide.

It’s a pretty small hide so we had to take turns going inside.

I gasped in delight as some OBPs were already there feeding alongside some Beautiful Firetails. The two species seemed to get along just fine either feeding side by side or taking turns.

While we were waiting our turn to go in the hide, we stood on a small hill behind the hide and watched the OBPs and some other birds waiting their turn for the food.

One of this year’s young. This little guy and his siblings will make a long flight in a few weeks to Victoria even though they are only a few months old! They just seemed so fragile to me, I can’t believe they actually survive such a long flight over water!

Was he waving at the Beautiful Firetail?

All the birds are banded, you can see the orange leg ring on this one. The rings allow researchers to keep track of them here and on the mainland.

Orange-bellied Parrot (Neophema chrysogaster)

Orange-bellied Parrots eating

You can tell the adults as their orange belly is much brighter. The youngsters won’t have the colours until their first moult.

We made two visits to the OBP hide, before and after lunch. We did have to be polite and let everyone in the hide but fortunately only about 7 or 8 people were really spending a lot of time with these birds so we had plenty of time. When we left, we felt so privileged to have met these delicate but brave little birds. In a couple months, they will start returning to Melaleuca, I hope they all have a safe journey and the 2014 breeding season is even more successful!

Our Melaleuca Adventure With Par Avion

Posted on September 11, 2014 by Tara

A day trip to Melaleuca with Par Avion is bound to be the highlight of any birder’s trip to Tasmania! They depart from Cambridge Airport just near the main Hobart Airport HBA early in the morning so you should fly in the day before, preferably on miles. Unfortunately Par Avion does not have a frequent flyer program!

While you wait, check the trees outside the car park for Musk Lorikeets.

Par Avion has several small aircraft and you will be assigned a pilot (who doubles as a giude) and a plane. Expect several planes to make the trip depending on bookings.

On the way out, our pilot Sam pointed out the landmarks below. Fish farms

One by one all the planes landed at Melaleuca and we were gathered in a small hut for orientation.

Ina & I with our plane

Preparing for the flight back

I am going to do more detailed blogs about the visit to the Orange-bellied Parrots and other sights in Melalueca and just post photos pertaining to the planes and flights here.

Destination Hobart, Tasmania (Melaleuca)

Posted on December 12, 2012 by Tara

GETTING TO HOBART

Yesterday, I gave some information about the endangered Orange-bellied Parrot. Now let’s find out how to get to see them in the wild! The “A” shows where Melaleuca is in relation to Hobart.

Tasmania is the smallest state in Australia and I am going to assume that if you are coming from overseas, it won’t be your only destination in Australia. I have another post about how to get from overseas to Australia on miles.

There are two major airlines that fly from the mainland to the main airport, Hobart (HOB) – Virgin Australia and Qantas. Virgin is not yet in any major airline alliance and there are few opportunities to use other airline partners on domestic Virgin (DJ) flights. Aussies can readily get Velocity points from credit cards and other partners. Here’s an example of a round trip redemption from Sydney to Hobart. From Brisbane it is the same, from Melbourne a bit less and from Adelaide a bit more. From Perth, it goes up quite a bit.

QANTAS also has a distanced based award chart with a handy award calculator.

Sydney and Brisbane both are in Zone 2.

By contrast, have a look at the award cost from Perth.

Qantas is a member of One World so it often works out cheaper in both miles and money to use their partner American Airlines to book this flight. AA has a flat fee of 10,000 miles each way no matter where you are flying to and from in Australia so they are a good bargain for longer flights.

British Airways has a distance based chart but short distances can be a bargain when booked with Avios. They start as low as 4500 from Melbourne, 9000 from Brisbane up to 12,500 from Perth each way.

WHERE TO STAY

The flights to Melaleuca leave from Cambridge Airfield which is very close to Hobart Airport where your flight from the mainland arrives. The purple dot indicates the location of the Quality Airport Hotel. This runs around $125-ish in cash or since they are part of the Choice hotel chain you can use 25,000 points to book it for free!

HOW TO GET TO MELALEUCA FROM HOBART

Only small aircraft that seat 6-10 people fly this route. Par Avion is the main tour operator that does day trips to Melaleuca and take you to the bird hides to see the Orange-bellied Parrots.

They can also provide flights for people who want to spend a few days at Melaleuca and camp out. There are more details on their website.

The Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service website has more information. Be sure to check out the sound clip of the OBP, they are pretty quiet for parrots!

For bushwalkers and those who are able to fly into the Tasmanian south-west, there is a good chance of seeing Orange-bellied Parrots. At Melaleuca, in the Southwest National Park, a bird hide has been built especially for observing the birds. From mid-October until the end of March, the birds are regular visitors, coming and going throughout the day. However the best times to see them are in the early mornings or late afternoons. There are two bushwalkers’ huts with room for up to 20 people.

If you are VERY lucky, you may also see Ground Parrots like this blogger reports! Tasmania has a wealth of nature reserves that have great birding, so I would recommend spending at least a week here. I will be doing more posts later about other birding hotspots in Tasmania.

Orange-Bellied Parrots (Neophema Chrysogaster)

Posted on December 10, 2012 by Tara

Orange-bellied Parrots (Neophema chrysogaster) are one of the rarest parrots species in the world; and unless something is done, we risk losing them from the planet forever.

I took the photos below on my trip to see them at Melaleuca, Tasmania in March 2014.

Orange-bellied Parrot (Neophema chrysogaster)

Orange-bellied Parrots eating

According to this video report, there are only 20 at the traditional breeding grounds at Melalueca, Tasmania. They are one of only two species of parrot which migrate. OBPs breed in Tasmania and spend the winter in coastal grasslands on southern mainland Australia. With only 36 wild birds known to be alive after the summer 2011/12 breeding season, it is regarded as a critically endangered species. This map shows their range.

OBP range

There is extensive information on the species on the Australian Biodiversity site, but I do want to point out the major threats.

The main current threat to the Orange-bellied Parrot is the loss and fragmentation of its non-breeding saltmarsh habitat. Suitable habitat has been lost to the construction of farmland, industrial sites and saltworks (Ashby 1924b; Brown & Wilson 1982; Loyn et al. 1986; Menkhorst et al. 1990; Starks 1995b; Stephenson 1991; Yugovic 1984). The main factors contributing to the loss of Orange-bellied Parrot habitat are:

drainage of wetlands for grazing

alteration and destruction of saltmarsh for industrial and urban development

grazing of native vegetation

vegetation clearance for agricultural purposes

changes to land use practices

recreational activities (OBPRT 2006a).

Potential threats to the Orange-bellied Parrot population include loss of unknown breeding sites, competition from introduced species, predation, Psittacine Circoviral Disease (PCD), collision with structures, ingestion of toxic weeds and reduced availability of food due to the changed species composition at feeding sites (OBPRT 2006a).

Threat Abatement and Recovery

The current Recovery Plan includes the following objectives:

To monitor the population size, productivity, survival and life history of the Orange-bellied Parrot.

To identify all sites used by Orange-bellied Parrots and better understand migration.

To increase the carrying capacity of habitat by actively managing sites throughout the species’ range.

To identify, measure and ameliorate threats, particularly in migratory and winter habitats.

To increase the number of breeding sub-populations /groups.

To maintain a viable captive population.

How can you help?

Zoos Australia have a captive breeding program and you can help by virtually “adopting” an Orange-bellied Parrot.

Visit their website to learn more about this.

Orange-bellied Parrots are also represented on Facebook and I recommend you like these pages to keep up to date with what is happening with them.

Orange-bellied Parrot Project

Save the Orange-bellied Parrot

In spite of their rarity, it is still possible to see Orange-bellied Parrots in the wild at Melaleuca, Tasmania. In this post I show you how to get there on airline miles and organize a visit. They can also be seen in coastal Victoria while they spend the winter there but they are more spread out and more difficult to spot. I recommend making the trip to Tasmania to see them between January-early March when there are both adults and newly hatched babies around.

LEARN MORE ABOUT ORANGE-BELLIED PARROTS

VIDEO

Polytelis Media has a superb clip from their excellent series on Australian parrots on Youtube.

Miles To The Wild

Create unforgettable eco-tourism and birding adventures using miles & points!

Tag Archives: Melaleuca

Eastern Ground Parrot (Pezoporus wallicus)

LEARN MORE ABOUT EASTERN GROUND PARROTS

VIDEOS

A Surprise Flushing Of Eastern Ground Parrots

Beautiful Firetail (Stagonopleura bella)

LEARN MORE ABOUT BEAUTIFUL FIRETAILS

VIDEO

A Magical Encounter With Orange-bellied Parrots

Our Melaleuca Adventure With Par Avion

Destination Hobart, Tasmania (Melaleuca)

Orange-Bellied Parrots (Neophema Chrysogaster)

Threat Abatement and Recovery

How can you help?

Orange-bellied Parrot Project

Save the Orange-bellied Parrot

LEARN MORE ABOUT ORANGE-BELLIED PARROTS

VIDEO