Enhancing habitat, providing nesting options and helping to control nest parasites are all part of a new project by BIEN and partners started this autumn that should run over many years.
Two threatened woodland birds are targeted for recovery on Bruny Island: Forty-spotted pardalote and Swift parrot.
They are chosen as Bruny is critical for each:
- 40-spotted pardalote have all but disappeared on mainland Tasmania, with a population estimate 1,820 birds – 47% on Bruny (47%) and 52% on Maria (which is National Park), thus Bruny is critical for survival of the population.
- Swift parrot – population estimate 1,000 birds – migrate from mainland Australia to Tasmania to breed each year. Their major threats are loss of habitat and predation by sugar gliders. Both Bruny and Maria have varied, mainly secure habitat and no gliders. However, the birds require feeding and nesting habitat in proximity and these locations vary year to year. On average they only spend one of two years on Bruny or Maria. This presents a conundrum for the project and researchers to try and solve.
Focusing on Land for Wildlife and covenanted properties, a small team of experts drawn from for-purpose organisations and academia have developed a plan to secure their future on Bruny under their respective National Recovery Plans to implement recovery actions on Bruny Island (and elsewhere if Bruny requires off-island actions).
The project has hit the ground running with some hundreds of trees already in the ground and plans for nest boxes and feather dispensers well under way.
Contact Andrew Hingston (Project Manager – 0478 601 306) for further information
