{"id":272926,"date":"2025-11-09T09:15:21","date_gmt":"2025-11-09T09:15:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/272926\/"},"modified":"2025-11-09T09:15:21","modified_gmt":"2025-11-09T09:15:21","slug":"rare-ground-parrot-rediscovered-in-northern-tasmania-after-decades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/272926\/","title":{"rendered":"Rare ground parrot rediscovered in northern Tasmania after decades"},"content":{"rendered":"

A chance discovery by a firefighter has confirmed the presence of endangered eastern ground parrots in northern Tasmania for the first time in decades.<\/p>\n

Robin Meyers from the Parks and Wildlife Service spotted an unusual feather during routine fieldwork at Narawntapu National Park.<\/p>\n

The distinctive yellow banding immediately raised eyebrows.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe yellow banding is a characteristic feature of the eastern ground parrot\u2019s long tail feathers,\u201d Acting Fire Operations Officer Aidan Munro said. <\/p>\n

\"\"Potential habitat for the eastern ground parrot in the Narawntapu National Park. Image \/ PWS<\/p>\n

\u201cEastern ground parrots have not been known in the northern coastal heath complexes of Tasmania for decades.\u201d<\/p>\n

The elusive, ground-dwelling birds usually inhabit the remote buttongrass moorlands of Tasmania\u2019s south and southwest. <\/p>\n

\"\"Additional sound recording devices will guide future management decisions. Image \/ PWS<\/p>\n

They sport mottled green plumage and long tails, making them notoriously difficult to spot.<\/p>\n

The species faces major threats on the mainland, where populations are scattered and confined to small pockets of coastal heathland. <\/p>\n

They\u2019re listed as vulnerable in Queensland and New South Wales, and endangered in Victoria and South Australia. Tasmania\u2019s southwest remains their stronghold.<\/p>\n

The feather discovery prompted further investigation when fire crews began planning a prescribed burn in the area. <\/p>\n

\"\"The Narawntapu National Park is home to five known parrot species. Image \/ Stock<\/p>\n

Sound recording devices were installed across the coastal heath to listen for the birds and after two months, the effort paid off.<\/p>\n

\u201cThree individual calls were recorded, seemingly of birds in flight around 6pm, probably travelling from roost to a foraging area,\u201d NRE Tasmania environment wildlife biologist Jarrah Dale said.<\/p>\n

The team used specialist software to analyse hours of acoustic data, filtering for known ground parrot call patterns developed through earlier research at Melaleuca in the southwest.<\/p>\n

The northern birds\u2019 calls differed slightly from their southwestern counterparts, possibly indicating dialect evolution within the species.<\/p>\n

\"\"Additional sound recording devices will guide future management decisions. Image \/ PWS<\/p>\n

\u201cFurther studies in the north of their range are currently being planned in the hope of providing more information on this population\u2019s habits,\u201d Dale said.<\/p>\n

The discovery expands the known range of eastern ground parrots in Tasmania and highlights the value of collaboration between fire management and conservation science teams.<\/p>\n

Parks and Wildlife staff are now asking the public to get involved.<\/p>\n

With summer and the tourist season approaching, visitors are encouraged to report any parrot sightings to the Natural Values Atlas.<\/p>\n

Narawntapu National Park currently boasts five known parrot species and staff hope citizen science contributions will help build a fuller picture of how ground parrots and other species use the park.<\/p>\n

Additional sound recording devices are also being installed to continue monitoring the population and guide future management decisions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A chance discovery by a firefighter has confirmed the presence of endangered eastern ground parrots in northern Tasmania…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272927,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,128,338],"class_list":{"0":"post-272926","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}