Swift Parrot Lathamus discolor

Length 25 cm; wingspan 32–36 cm; weight: c. 65 g.

Swift Parrots are gregarious, usually occurring in small parties, and occasionally in larger flocks, and they roost communally.  The species is usually seen feeding in the canopy of flowering trees, where they often associate with smaller lorikeets and honeyeaters, or while flying overhead.  Though they are often noisy, active and conspicuous, Swift Parrots may be silent while they are feeding.  They typically allow a close approach from an observer when they are feeding in the safety of some trees, but they are usually, nevertheless, often wary and alert, fluttering into neighbouring trees or flying off if disturbed or approached too closely.  They are almost entirely arboreal mainly feeding in the outer canopy of flowering eucalypt: in Tasmania, the species is mostly reliant on the Tasmanian Blue Gum, but will also feed in other flowering eucalypts, especially Swamp Gum.  On mainland Australia, they feed in many species of eucalypts in box–ironbark woodlands or other dry sclerophyll woodlands.  They also forage among the outer foliage of psyllid-infested eucalypts, particularly if flowering is not prolific.  Their feeding behaviour and actions are similar to those of lorikeets: they are agile when clambering among the foliage, often hanging upside down to reach food.  They often dart from tree to tree, but may also flutter between trees.  When leaving a tree, Swift Parrots often lose height before resuming their normal flight and rising again.  Their flight is swift and direct, with rapid shallow wing-beats; flocks are typically seen weaving through the canopy of woodlands at great speed or flying high overhead, with random changes in direction.  Flocks often settle on a topmost or outer, bare branches of trees before continuing on.  They nest in hollows in dead limbs or holes in mature or dead eucalypts, usually in Tasmanian Blue Gum, Messmate or White Peppermint, and most often in close proximity to feeding sites.

HABITAT
In Tasmania, Swift Parrots are mostly associated with Tasmanian Blue Gums in both dry and wet sclerophyll forests and woodlands.  They also occur in habitats dominated by other eucalypts, such as Swamp Gums, but often supporting a few clumps of Tasmanian Blue Gums.  On mainland Australia, they mainly inhabit dry open eucalypt forests and woodlands, usually box–ironbark communities, especially those with Red Ironbark, Mugga Ironbark, Grey Box, White Box and Yellow Gum, and sometimes (especially in dry years) in other eucalypt-dominated associations, such as Spotted Gum, Swamp Mahogany or Blackbutt forests in coastal areas.  Both in Tasmania and on the mainland, Swift Parrots often occur in urban areas, including parks and gardens, street trees and golf courses, and in farmland with remnant patches of eucalypt woodland.

DISTRIBUTION
The Swift Parrot is endemic to south-eastern Australia, breeding in Tasmania and migrating to the Australian mainland.

STATUS

• Endangered nationally (listed under the Commonwealth EPBC Act 1999)
• Endangered in Queensland
• Endangered in New South Wales
• Endangered in Victoria
• Endangered in Tasmania
• Endangered in South Australia

THREATS
Swift Parrots are adversely affected by the loss and fragmentation of their habitat, especially Tasmanian Blue Gum forests, through forestry operations (including clearfelling for sawlog production, pulping or woodchipping) and their clearance for agriculture and residential and industrial subdivision.  The species appears to be highly susceptible to the impacts of climate change – reduced rainfall directly influences eucalypt flowering and lerp availability, hence the species use of coastal drought refuges might be expected to increase.  When flying through developed areas, Swift Parrots often collide with man-made objects, such as windows and wire fences.  A few are possibly illegally trapped for aviculture.  They are sometimes killed by domestic cats.

MOVEMENTS
Migratory; the species breeds in Tasmania (October – January) and moves to the Australian mainland for the non-breeding season (February – September), with most of the population wintering in Victoria and NSW, before returning to Tasmania in spring to breed.

CALLS

Swift Parrot © Andrew Skeoch of Listening Earth

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