This week, Winton Wetlands is proud to be hosting VIPs –Very Important Parrots! The Critically Endangered Swift Parrot (Lathamus discolor) has been sighted feeding in Lemon-scented Gums around the Mokoan Hub and Café and foreshore area.

The parrots are consuming both the nectar from the flowers as well as psyllids, a small sap-sucking insect found on the surface of Eucalyptus leaves.

Swift Parrots have unique migratory behaviour and every winter, they fly north over the treacherous Bass Strait from their summer breeding grounds in Tasmania’s Blue Gum forests to overwinter in south-eastern Australia.

They can be highly nomadic whilst searching for their mainland food: flowering Eucalyptus in Box-Ironbark forests.

The last time Swift Parrots were officially recorded at Winton Wetlands was 2011, so to have them visiting again is a real treat.

In our region, they have also been observed in the Warby Ranges, Killawarra and the forests at Muckleford.

Swift Parrots are a joy to observe with beautifully coloured plumage of mostly bright green, a dark-blue patch on the crown and bright scarlet colouring from the forehead to the throat.

Swift parrots are threatened by destruction and fragmentation of habitat, loss and competition of suitable nesting hollows and predation by domestic and feral animals.

The duration of their stay at a site is dependent on the supply of nectar, so now is the time to visit the wetlands and try and spot our VIPs!

Posted 29 July 2024

Images courtesy of Andrew Silcocks, Birdlife Australia