What Is It? The Orange-bellied Parrot (known as the 'OBP') is a small, bright-green, migratory parrot that spends the summer breeding in Tasmania and the winter in coastal Victoria and South Australia. It is critically endangered, with the current number estimated to be only around 50 left in the wild. Since 1983, a scientific team - the Orange-bellied Parrot National Recovery Team - has worked to try to 'recover' its numbers. But it's a race against time.     How do we tell them apart? Orange-bellied Parrots are monitored at their Tasmanian breeding grounds and on the mainland. Almost every bird has been caught (whilst a nestling) and fitted with unique legbands. Each individual can thus be identified when sighted, and re-sighted, during its lifetime of 2-6 years. Band details can be read with a telescope or binoculars.     Captive breeding: an insurance population Several wild birds were caught in 1985 and a captive breeding program began. It is now spread across six institutions: zoos, wildlife sanctuaries, a government facility and a parrot-breeding business. In 2011, another 21 birds were caught at Melaleuca to add to the captive population, adding much-needed genetic diversity.   There are 350 birds in captivity, known as an 'insurance population' in case the species goes extinct in the wild. It also supplies birds for release to the wild, which has been done for the last two seasons - 2013/14 and 2014/15.        Where can I learn more? Save the Orange-bellied Parrot (Facebook) reports the latest information about the Orange-bellied Parrot recovery program, including summer and winter sightings, breeding, and news about the captive population. Our blog features longer articles, information about surveys, and interviews with members of the OBP National Recovery Team. Our aim is to tell everyone about this beautiful, vulnerable bird, and to help ensure its future in the wild. The 'OBP' is a priceless part of Australia's biodiversity, but its future remains uncertain.    Donate Funding for conservation work is from three state governments and (hopefully) the Commonwealth Government, but it has never been reliable or complete. We aim to raise money from the public and corporate sources to supplement this with much-needed funds for conservation and research.   Save the Orange-bellied Parrot is on Givematcher, an online fundraising platform. Our Givematcher page showcases this bold new way to fundraise, in which ethical companies and individuals match the public's donations. Corporates and individuals win by getting kudos for their environmental credibility; the birds win because donations are increased, sometimes doubled or even quadrupled.   Please donate or shop, and contribute vital funds to help safeguard the future of Orange-bellied Parrots.   

The Orange-bellied Parrot National Recovery Team consists of experts in ornithology, ecology, genetics and bird breeding representatives from the environment departments of the state governments of Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania, and the Commonwealth government  representatives from the six institutions breeding Orange-bellied Parrots The first recovery team for the Orange-bellied Parrot was convened in 1983. This informal group writes recovery plans that list the threats to the birds and the steps that need to be taken to address them. These change every 5-7 years, as circumstances change.   The latest OBP Recovery Plan is the fifth. It is in the process of being evaluated by the Australian government. Funding for all actions in each plan is not provided. The recovery team applies for grants to carry out work on each, specific problem.     We know many of the problems besetting Orange-bellied Parrots, and some of the solutions. But more research must be done to find out why their numbers are so low.   From the Draft National Recovery Plan for the Orange-bellied Parrot, Neophema chrysogaster (2014):   There are about 50 Orange-bellied Parrots remaining in the wild, and a captive breeding population of around 320 individuals.   The species is at risk of extinction in the wild in the near-term. Current knowledge suggests that habitat loss and degradation, particularly in the non-breeding range, has caused the decline.   Low breeding participation by females has been implicated in recent declines (2000-2010), and may be a consequence of low food availability due to loss or inappropriate management of habitat, or the impacts of drought on habitat condition.    The species is also at risk from climate change, and the small population size places the species at increased risk from factors such as loss of genetic diversity and inbreeding, stochastic environmental events, predators and competitors, disease, and barriers to migration and movement.  This plan has three primary objectives to prevent extinction and progress recovery over the next five years. They are:    To achieve a stable or increasing population in the wild within five years To increase the capacity of the captive population, both to support future releases of captive-bred birds to the wild and to provide a secure long-term insurance population  To protect and enhance habitat to maintain, and support growth of, the wild population.