Siwei Feng – u6774335

The Superb Parrot currently listed as Vulnerable under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999; it is an iconic species of the critically endangered box-gum grassy woodlands of south-eastern Australia. There is a lack of information about the breeding biology and movements of the Superb Parrots. These knowledge gaps are a major obstacle to effective conservation management of this bird, and it is currently difficult to conduct ecological assessments of this species and to make conservations and planning without basic ecological information. The Superb Parrots in the Australian Capital Territory Digivol project provided by Michael Mulvaney, aiming to track the breeding success of superb parrots in the ACT where is an important breeding region for the species.

Threats to Superb Parrot

“Superb Parrot populations have been hammered by deforestation.” – Dr. Mulvaney.

Habitat Loss – The key threat to the Superb Parrot is the widespread clearing of box-dominated Woodland, 95%, of the bird’s woodland habitat has been gradually cleared. The loss of hollow-bearing trees poses a challenge to Superb Parrots conservation in ACT: suitable super-parrot nests take more than 120 years to develop.; and super parrots strongly prefer to breed in nests previously occupied by Superb Parrots.

Nest competition – The demand for hollow nest extends far beyond the Super Parrot species, with other species of hollow visitors becoming nesting competitors to the Super Parrot.

“……the introduced European Starling remove superb Parrot eggs from a tree hollow and occupied the hollow themselves – and predation of chicks on one occasion by a Brown Goshawk and probably predation of chicks by the Australian Kookaburra on one occasion.” – Dr. Mulvaney

Climate change – The core range of the Super Parrot is expected to shift populations southeastward in the ACT and north as these further range contractions occur in key areas of the species’ migration, especially as these further range contractions occur. It means that amount of sight will increase in ACT region.

Though set up the monitoring cameras to track super parrot breeding behavior. Motion-activated cameras were deployed on trees that repeatedly showed signs of super-parrot breeding behavior. Checked and redeployed the camera every 2-3 weeks.

“There’s no way I can look through 1 million images!”- Dr. Mulvaney

Citizen scientist

As citizen science evolves, Digivol collects large amounts of data through volunteer work. Participate remotely in the Super Parrot research project while leveraging the efforts of a large number of volunteers to drive progress.

Interesting things to discover by volunteering in front of a computer. The animals never pose for the camera in the way they should, the photos are always blurry. The process of identifying species is always the most nerve-wracking but also the most fun, as the animal in the photo may be in a variety of movements and poses, or only have a part of its body, or hiding in a corner you never thought possible. It’s like playing hide-and-seek or a guessing game, but you need to be familiar with the characteristics and appearance of the various bird species in order to get high scores (accuracy) in this “game.”

Who would have thought that they could contribute so much in this way? The purpose of studying super-parrots is achieved by using your fingers and your brain.

Learn more about the konwleage about Superb Parrot: https://youtu.be/2ba6bX2616c