The Orange-bellied Parrot has landed! …on the mainland for their wintering season

In early April, the first Orange-bellied Parrot (OBP) migrants were sighted on the mainland from their summer breeding ground at Melaleuca, Tasmania. It’s time to get out and start looking for these critically endangered birds!

Every year volunteers are encouraged to search for OBP’s in saltmarsh along the coast from Victoria’s Gippsland to the Murray Mouth in SA through out the OBP’s mainland wintering season from April to October, when the birds migrate back to Melaleuca.

There are also three concentrated survey weekends throughout the season where as may volunteers as possible all search at the same time. This year these weekends are scheduled for:

May 18 & 19

July 27 & 28

September 14 & 15

NGT’s Jess is the regional coordinator for sites in the South West Victoria region which are located right on the coast from Nelson to Warrnambool, including close to Portland, Port Fairy and Warrnambool. Other regions from the Coorong in SA to Gippsland in Vic also have a wide range of sites along the coast.

If you’d like a day out in nature, looking for an OBP, or to find more information about habitat or how to identify these birds from their relatives, please get in touch with Jess (). You can also find out more information about OBPs and their identification here.

The OBP project is supported by Glenelg Hopkins CMA and the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning through funding from the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program.