Swift parrot

Swift parrot
South Bruny, Tasmania
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Psittaciformes
Family: Psittaculidae
Tribe: Platycercini
Genus: Lathamus
Lesson, 1830
Species:
L. discolor
Binomial name
Lathamus discolor
(Shaw, 1790)
Distribution of the swift parrot
From Atlas of Living Australia
Synonyms[2]

Psittacus discolor Shaw, 1790
Psittacus sanguinolentus Kerr, 1792
Psittacus lathami Bechstein, 1811
Psittacus humeralis Bechstein, 1811
Psittacus banksianus Vieillot, 1818
Psittacus australis Kuhl 1820
Lathamus rubrifrons Lesson, 1830

migrant in Canberra, ACT

The swift parrot (Lathamus discolor) is a species of broad-tailed parrot, found only in southeastern Australia. The species breeds in Tasmania during the summer and migrates north to southeastern mainland Australia from Griffith-Warialda in New South Wales and west to Adelaide in the winter. It is a nomadic migrant, and it settles in an area only when there is food available. The Swift Parrot was voted 2023 Bird of the Year in The Guardian Australia and BirdLife Australia's biennial poll.

The species is critically endangered,[3][4] and the severe predation by introduced sugar gliders (Petaurus breviceps) on breeding females and nests in some locations has demonstrated an unexpected but potentially serious new threat. Genetic evidence for the effective population size suggests that the minimum potential population size is now around 300–500 individual swift parrots.[5][6] This supports the results of earlier studies that use demographic information about swift parrots to predict that the species could be extinct by 2031.[3][7]

Habitat for the critically endangered swift parrot is being "knowingly destroyed" by logging because of government failures to manage the species' survival.[8]

  1. ^ BirdLife International (2018). "Lathamus discolor". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2018: e.T22685219A130886700. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-2.RLTS.T22685219A130886700.en. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
  2. ^ Australian Biological Resources Study (7 October 2015). "Species Lathamus discolor (Shaw, 1790)". Australian Faunal Directory. Canberra, Australian Capital Territory: Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, Australian Government. Retrieved 20 September 2021.
  3. ^ a b Heinsohn, Robert; Webb, Matthew; Lacy, Robert; Terauds, Aleks; Alderman, Rachael; Stojanovic, Dejan (1 June 2015). "A severe predator-induced population decline predicted for endangered, migratory swift parrots (Lathamus discolor)". Biological Conservation. 186: 75–82. Bibcode:2015BCons.186...75H. doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2015.03.006. ISSN 0006-3207.
  4. ^ Webb, Matthew H.; Stojanovic, Dejan; Heinsohn, Robert (18 June 2019). "Policy failure and conservation paralysis for the critically endangered swift parrot". Pacific Conservation Biology. 25 (2): 116–123. doi:10.1071/PC18020. ISSN 2204-4604.
  5. ^ Olah, G.; Stojanovic, D.; Webb, M. H.; Waples, R. S.; Heinsohn, R. (2020). "Comparison of three techniques for genetic estimation of effective population size in a critically endangered parrot". Animal Conservation. 24 (3): 491–498. doi:10.1111/acv.12655. hdl:1885/274558. ISSN 1469-1795.
  6. ^ Olah, George; Waples, Robin S.; Stojanovic, Dejan (2024). "Influence of molecular marker type on estimating effective population size and other genetic parameters in a critically endangered parrot". Ecology and Evolution. 14 (3): e11102. doi:10.1002/ece3.11102. ISSN 2045-7758. PMC 10961163. PMID 38524913.
  7. ^ Heinsohn, Robert; Olah, George; Webb, Matthew; Peakall, Rod; Stojanovic, Dejan (2019). "Sex ratio bias and shared paternity reduce individual fitness and population viability in a critically endangered parrot". Journal of Animal Ecology. 88 (4): 502–510. Bibcode:2019JAnEc..88..502H. doi:10.1111/1365-2656.12922. hdl:1885/201572. ISSN 1365-2656. PMID 30511387.
  8. ^ Webb, Matthew H.; Stojanovic, Dejan; Heinsohn, Robert (17 July 2018). "Policy failure and conservation paralysis for the critically endangered swift parrot". Pacific Conservation Biology. 25 (2): 116–123. doi:10.1071/PC18020. ISSN 2204-4604.