• Summary
• Text account
• Data table and detailed info
• Distribution map
• Reference and further resources

Justification of Red List category

This species has a very large range, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the range size criterion (Extent of Occurrence <20,000 km² combined with a declining or fluctuating range size, habitat extent/quality, or population size and a small number of locations or severe fragmentation). The population size may be small, but it is not believed to approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population size criterion (<10,000 mature individuals with a continuing decline estimated to be >10% in ten years or three generations, or with a specified population structure). Despite the fact that the population trend appears to be decreasing, the decline is not believed to be sufficiently rapid to approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population trend criterion (>30% decline over ten years or three generations). For these reasons the species is evaluated as Least Concern.

Population justification
It is, and appears always to have been, a rare species but it is unobtrusive and may have been overlooked (Davis et al. 2018). During surveys at 239 census stations on New Britain in 1998-1999, the species was recorded only once (Marsden and Pilgrim 2003). Buchanan et al. (2008) placed the population size at >10,000 - 15,000 individuals, based on the area of remaining suitable habitat in the species's altitudinal range (7,454 km²). Davis et al. (2018) recorded few individuals during surveys and tentatively re-estimated the population size at 2,500-10,000 mature individuals, placed here in the band 2,500-9,999 mature individuals. New Britain holds around 80% of the tree cover in the species's range, so the New Britain subpopulation may have c.2,000-8,000 mature individuals.

Trend justification
The species is inferred to be declining due to ongoing forest loss (Global Forest Watch 2021). Between 1989-2000, Buchanan et al. (2008) calculated the rate of forest loss within the species's altitudinal range on New Britain as 18.2% over ten years, although they acknowledged that forest loss was likely to have been slower elsewhere in the Bismarck archipelago. However, the rate of forest loss has since slowed (Davis et al. 2018). Between 2010-2020, the rate of forest loss across the range was 6.6% (Global Forest Watch 2021). During the years 2017-2020, the rate of forest loss was 2.3% (Global Forest Watch 2021), which when projected forwards over ten years, equates to a loss of 5.6%. The species occurs in forest and as such, its population size is inferred to be declining as forest is lost, although it appears to have some tolerance of degraded and secondary forests and has been recorded in gardens and plantations (Leavesley and Leavesley 2000), so its rate of decline may be slower than the rate of forest loss. The rate of population decline is therefore suspected to fall in the range of 1-10% over ten years.

Loriculus tener is endemic to New Britain, New Ireland, New Hanover (= Lavongai) and Duke of York Islands in Papua New Guinea.

It inhabits lowland rainforest, including forest edges, secondary growth and partially cleared areas. It has also been recorded as common in gardens and coconut plantations (Leavesley and Leavesley 2000). It mainly occurs below 500 m. A record at 900 m on New Britain may have been a dispersing individual (Bishop and Jones 2001). A nest has been recorded in the stump of the palm Areca sp. (Marsden and Pilgrim 2003).

In 2002, all forest in New Ireland and West New Britain was allocated for industrial forestry, and New Britain alone accounted for approximately half of Papua New Guinea's timber exports (Bun et al. 2004). Regulations on the frequency of re-logging areas are being ignored (Nelson et al. 2014). 

Many areas of lowland forest in New Britain have been converted to oil palm plantations (Swartzendruber 1993, Buchanan et al. 2008). Much of the Bismarck Archipelago has been allocated as Special Agricultural Business Lease (SABL) areas, which would permit conversion to oil palm plantations. However, many of these areas appear to be unsuitable for oil palm, suggesting that they may be in place to facilitate commercial logging, under the pretext of oil palm development (Nelson et al. 2014, Bryan et al. 2015). Nevertheless, conversion to oil palm is likely to continue slowly in the region (Nelson et al. 2014).

Around 12% of forest cover in New Britain was lost between 1989 and 2000, with over 20% lost in the lowlands below 100 m (Buchanan et al. 2008). Since then, the rate of deforestation apparently slowed (B. Beehler in litt. 2016), and between 2002 and 2014, around 7.4% of forest on New Britain and 7.6% of forest on New Ireland was logged or cleared (Bryan et al. 2015). On New Ireland, most lowland forest was lost before 1989, and the area converted to oil palm has been much smaller (Davis et al. 2018).

Conservation Actions Underway
CITES Appendix II.

Conservation Actions Proposed
Identify and effectively protect a network of reserves, including some containing large areas of unlogged lowland forest and some large community based conservation areas. Continue to monitor trends in forest loss. Research its tolerance of degraded forest. Monitor populations in a number of primary forest and degraded forest sites on the islands.

Text account compilers
Wheatley, H., Clark, J.

Contributors
Bishop, K.D., Derhé, M., Dutson, G., Eastwood, C., Mahood, S., O'Brien, A., Pilgrim, J. & Davis, R.A.

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Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Species factsheet: Bismarck Hanging-parrot Loriculus tener. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/bismarck-hanging-parrot-loriculus-tener on 23/11/2024.
Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2024) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/search on 23/11/2024.