The Nature Conservation Trust (NCT) Orange office welcomed an unexpected visitor this week: a male Superb Parrot stopped in for breakfast, taking advantage of the range of grass seeds available in the rural office's back yard. Superb Parrots are strikingly handsome green birds, with long, tapered tails and graceful flight. Their numbers have decreased with land clearing, and the birds suffered in particular the loss of thier habitat in mature hollow-bearing trees, which they rely on for nesting sites. The Superb Parrot make seasonal movements from the Riverina to central-north NSW during winter, especially along the Namoi, Macquarie and Lachlan Rivers. Superb Parrots are currently listed as a threatened species in NSW.
The Superb Parrot has its champions and much is being done to bring the threatened bird species back from the brink of extinction. In the past decade, Boorowa and Young local councils, in association with the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, began a campaign to encourage local grain truck drivers to cover their loads to prevent spillage. Superb Parrots were gorging themselves on grain spilt on roadsides to the extent that they were unable to avoid speeding vehicles: the birds were too stuffed to fly! Consequently, many Superb Parrots were killed in collisions with cars and trucks. Thankfully, the campaign was successful and Superb Parrot mortality was greatly reduced.
In an effort to reverse the fortunes of Boorowa's avian emblem, local Landcare groups began a program of Superb Parrot habitat regeneration in conjunction with North Sydney Council. Over a three year period (between 2005 and 2007), Bushcare volunteers from North Sydney travelled to Boorowa each spring to assist local landholders plant over 20,000 shrubs and trees on six properties. The plantings are now mature enough to provide food (in the form of wattle seeds) for Superb Parrots as well as shelter, foraging and nesting sites for a whole host of other native birds and animals.
Preserving mature trees and remnant woodland habitat in the region is another way to halt the decline of these magnificent threatened birds. Like many species, the Superb Parrot does not recognise the artificial boundaries placed on the landscape by humans: it is highly mobile and flies from one suitable habitat patch to another, regardless of whether the patch is in a National Park or not. Protecting habitat on private property, therefore, is an invaluable tool for ensuring the future for many of our threatened animals and native plants.
