Data Zone
Justification of Red List category
Although this species has a large range, recording rates suggest a population decline of 30-49% within the last three generations (11 years) likely caused by land clearing for agriculture. For this reason the species is assessed as Vulnerable.
Population justification
While there are no quantitative data available on the population size, experts suspect there are approximately 10,000 (7,500-15,000) mature individuals (Holdsworth et al. 2021).
Trend justification
Sixty years ago, N. chrysostoma was widespread, and the commonest parrot in Tasmania (McColl 1957), but the species has greatly declined over the least two decades.
In Tasmania, reporting rates from regular 5-km area searches across the north declined by 77% from 2008–2018, and by 75% across the State from 2001–2005 to 2013–2017. At two long-term monitoring sites near Wynyard in north-west Tasmania, reporting rates from 5-km area searches declined by >75% from 1999–2016 (Newman & Ashby 2018) and 64% from 2010–2020 (M. Newman unpublished, in Holdsworth et al. 2021). On the mainland, annual reporting rates from the breeding range in southern Victoria during the breeding season (September–January) declined by 59% and 26% for 2-ha 20-min surveys and 500-m area searches, respectively, from 2009–2019 (BirdLife Australia 2020, eBird 2021) but reporting rates are too low for analysis in the non-breeding range of inland New South Wales, South Australia and Queensland. Two local analyses show no trend: (1) in the Midlands, Tasmania, N. chrysostoma were more abundant on 72 surveyed sites in 2016, a wet year, than when previously surveyed in 1996–1998 (Bain et al. 2020), but there was no monitoring in the intervening period; and (2) in the greater Geelong and Surf Coast region, Victoria, annual reporting rates of breeding and non-breeding between 2009 and 2020 show no clear trend (BirdLife Australia 2020, eBird 2021, Holdsworth et al. 2021).
Consequently, although a continuing decline is inferred, there is uncertainty with the ongoing rate. Combining the data available, Holdsworth et al. (2021) suspected a global rate of decline of 30-49% over the past three generations. It is unclear whether this rate of decline can be maintained in the future, although a continuing decline is inferred on the basis that the identified plausible threats remain unmitigated.
Blue-winged Parrots breed on mainland Australia, south of the Great Dividing Range in southern Victoria from Port Albert in Gippsland west to Nelson, and sometimes in the far south-east of South Australia, and the north-western, central and eastern parts of Tasmania (Emison et al. 1987, Higgins 1999). A partial migrant, variable numbers of birds migrate across Bass Strait in winter, apparently making the flight non-stop based on the scarcity of records from Bass Strait islands. During the non-breeding period, from autumn to early spring, birds are recorded from northern Victoria, eastern South Australia, south-western Queensland and western New South Wales with some birds reaching south-eastern New South Wales and eastern Victoria, particularly on the southern migration. However, it is not known whether these birds breed in Tasmania, Victoria or both (Higgins 1999).
Blue-winged Parrots occur in eucalypt forests and woodland in spring and summer where they breed in tree hollows, laying 4–6 eggs. In Victoria, they breed mainly in heathy forests and woodlands and in wetter forests soon after fire or logging (Emison et al. 1987). In Tasmania, in autumn many birds congregate on saltmarshes and agricultural land before migration, on the mainland mobile flocks feed in saltmarsh and rough pasture in coastal Victoria. Other birds move >100 km inland to feed in semi-arid chenopod shrubland and sparse grassland. They feed on or near the ground on the seeds of a wide range of native and introduced grasses, herbs and shrubs (Higgins 1999).
There is no obvious explanation for the population decline, although some threats to the Orange-bellied Parrot N. chrysogaster (DELWP 2016) may also apply to this species. In Tasmania, land clearing for agriculture continues to remove habitat given that up to 40 ha can now be cleared without a permit (FPA 2020), nesting birds may be subject to excessive predation by introduced sugar gliders Petaurus breviceps (Stojanovic et al. 2014). Cats Felis catus (Woinarski et al. 2017) and, on the mainland, foxes Vulpes vulpes may take some birds given they feed on the ground. Fire may have affected some birds as may drought, with both expected to increase in severity and frequency (Evans et al. 2017, Di Virgilio et al. 2019, Dowdy et al. 2019), which may also have contributed to declines. Although droughts have probably reduced productivity of coastal saltmarsh and other habitats used in the non-breeding season, recent fires may have attracted birds to breed in areas where they are less likely to be observed (Boon et al. 2011, Boon 2012). Psittacine Beak and Feather Disease may also have reduced survival and reproductive success (Raidal and Peters 2018).
Conservation Actions Underway
On the mainland, many breeding and some non-breeding sites are within conservation areas.
Conservation Actions Proposed
Determine population trends across its range. Determine if the Tasmanian population is genetically separate from that on the mainland. Clarify migration movements and pathways. Determine breeding success and factors that affect it. Understand localised causes of decline and threats.
Implement adequate forestry management prescriptions in Tasmania to prevent logging of hollow bearing trees critical for breeding success. Promote ecological management of woodland remnants on private and public land. Coordinate recovery efforts among different jurisdictions. List as threatened under relevant conservation legislation.
Text account compilers
Vine, J., Berryman, A.
Contributors
Butchart, S.
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Species factsheet: Blue-winged Parrot Neophema chrysostoma. Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/blue-winged-parrot-neophema-chrysostoma on 22/11/2024.
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 22/11/2024.