The Endangered f Golden-shouldered Parrot in the Wild and in Captivity

Abstract

I t has been claimed, and perhaps correctly, that numbers of Golden-shouldered Parrots Psephotus cbrysopterygius in aviaries now exceed those remaining in the wild. Despite early setbacks, the species currently is well established in Australian collections, and consistent breeding successes are being achieved in some other countries. However, the initial establishment of aviary stocks involved significant illicit taking of chicks and adults from the wild, and almost certainly this had a serious adverse impact on local populations. These depredations assumed increased importance as a secondary factor, because the species already was declining as a consequence of habitat alteration, and I believe that a particularly dramatic decline during the 1960s and 1970s can be attributed to the combined effect of these primary and secondary pressures.

Similar in appearance to the better known and closely-allied Hooded Parrot Psephotus dissimilis, which sometimes is considered to be conspecific, the adult male Golden-shouldered Parrot is distinguished by the lemon yellow frontal band extending to the lores and below the eyes. Black on the crown, nape and hindneck merges into earth brown on the back and mantle, while the rump and upper-tail coverts are turquoise blue. Yellow on the upper wing-coverts is noticeably duller and less extensive than in the male Hooded Parrot, but brighter orange-red is more extensive on the lower underparts, from the under tail-coverts to the thighs and abdomen. The face, neck and lower underparts are predominantly turquoise blue. The dull green females and juveniles of the two species are much alike, but a pale buff-yellow frontal band and dull salmon pink markings on the thighs and abdomen identify Golden-shout-

 

dered Parrots.

In northernmost Australia, this species is restricted to Cape York Peninsula, where a continual contraction of the range has occurred since the early 1900s, and now it is known to survive in two, apparently isolated breeding populations. The first population is centered on Artemis and Dixie Stations and the Morehead River drainage, to the south-west of Princess Charlotte Bay, while the second occurs well to the south, in the upper reaches of the Mitchell River, to the north-west of Chillagoe. Only occasionally are sightings recorded from outside these two localities.

Habitat Preferences

Golden-shouldered Parrots frequent wet or dry, open Eucalyptus-Melaleuca woodlands with a groundcover of annual grasses, and seasonal preferences are determined by the presence of terrestrial termitaria required for nesting. There are early reports of sightings in other habitats, including at least one of birds being seen in coastal mangroves.

At Artemis Station, where extensive field studies have been undertaken, woodlands favored during the dry season are dominated by eucalypts, together with ironwood Erythrophleum chlorostachys and Gretnllea glauca, while fire grasses Scbizacbyrium fragile and S. pacbyartbron feature prominently in the groundcover vegetation. In the wet season, birds move into low open woodlands on alluvial flats along drainage depressions of permanent or seasonal watercourses, where the dominant canopy trees are broad leaved titree Melaleuca viridijlora, Petalostigma banksii, and golden grevillea Gretnllea pteridifolia, while Scbizacbyrium fire grasses, Planichloa nennlemma and Hyptis suaveolens are prevalent in the groundcover, and termitaria preferred for nesting occur primarily at the margins of these grassy flats.

 

Effects of Habitat Alteration With a total population estimated at about 1600 pairs, the Golden-shouldered Parrot certainly is endangered. Alteration of burning regimes and consequent effects on vegetation communities have been identified as the most likely causes of declines in the numbers of parrots. Traditional burning practices employed by Aboriginal hunters maintained a mosaic of areas burnt at different times of the year, as well as unburnt areas protected from fires late in the dry season, and this favored the parrots by providing open areas for feeding through the dry season. Also, spread of the broad leaved ti-tree Melaleuca uiridiflora into grassy woodlands was checked by the regu-

 

lar burning. Late fires in the early wet season were particularly beneficial because they exposed seeds on the ground and prompted growth of some wet season food plants, while at the same time retarding regrowth of titrees. Altered burning regimes put into practice by pastoralists, together with grazing of grasses by cattle, have enabled ti-trees to spread into grassy woodlands, and under current fire regimes these woodlands are being lost to ti-trees at a rate of approximately 5 percent per decade.

In addition to impacting on food resources, colonization of these woodlands by ti-trees seems to bring about significantly increased predation by butcherbirds of both adults and fledg-

 

lings. Opportunities for butcherbirds to take parrots appear to be less in open grassy woodlands, especially where Black-faced Woodswallows Artamus cinereus provide effective warnings, but in denser thickets of ti-trees nesting parrots are more vulnerable. Losses of adults appear to be the major threat to remaining populations of Goldenshouldered Parrots, and Pied Butcherbirds Cracticus nigrogularis are the major predators.

On Artemis Station, probably the last stronghold of this species, management practices are being implemented to assist the parrots. Paddocks will be spared periodically from cattle grazing and will be subjected to beneficial burning regimes.

 

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References

Literature

Garnett, S., and G. Crowley, 1994. The plight of the parrot with gold on its wings, Wingspan, no. 16: 21-23.

Garnett, S., and G. Crowley, 1997. Golden-shouldered Parrot Psephotus chrysoperygius, Psittascene, 9 (2): 4-5.

Sindel, S., and J. Gill. 1996. Australian Grass Parakeets: the Psepbotus and Northtella Genera, Sydney: Singil Press.

Weaver, C. M., 1982. Breeding habitats and status of the Golden-shouldered Parrot Psephotus chrysopterygius in Queensland, Emu 82: 2-6 ..,,..