Massive flock of critically endangered swift parrots seen near Bendigo
The natural environment program manager at Victoria's Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action was monitoring the "swifties" that had come to roost in central Victoria as part of their annual migration from Tasmania.
He was astonished as a flock of a few parrots grew in size to dozens, then hundreds, right before his eyes.
"We were getting up around that estimated population size … around that 600 to 700," Mr Martins says.
And that's significant because there are thought to be only 750 of the birds left in the wild in Australia
"Every night I was back at this site watching and observing new behaviours that I'd never seen before," Mr Martins says.
One of the first people he called about his discovery was wildlife ecologist Chris Tzaros.
Mr Tzaros grew up in the local area and spent his weekends as a child riding his bike through bushland to spot the birds.
He was working in the field in New South Wales, six hours' drive away, but couldn't stand missing out once he saw Mr Martins's updates.
"I thought, 'Stuff this, I'm going to drop everything and get down there and have a look,'" Mr Tzaros says.
"It was amazing."
The predominantly bright green swift parrot is about 25 centimetres long, noisy and endemic to south-east Australia.
Mr Tzaros has been working with swift parrots for three decades and has seen the population plummet.
While big aggregations are known to occur, he says this one was significant.
"I've been monitoring the bird pretty closely [and] normally … a big flock might be between 50 and 100 birds."
Now ecologists are questioning why so many "swifties" congregated this season and why they chose that particular site near Bendigo.
Mr Tzaros says dry conditions could have limited available food sources for the parrots, but it is unclear what makes the location remarkable.
And his excitement to see such a large flock is tempered by the reality the birds face.
The threat level to swift parrots was upgraded to critically endangered in 2016.
Rob Heinsohn from Australian National University (ANU) leads a team of conservation biologists working with the swift parrot.
Professor Heinsohn says the parrots face threats both in their breeding ground of Tasmania and on the mainland where they seek nectar in the cooler months.
Habitat loss and a surprising opportunistic predator, the sugar glider, are the bird's biggest threats.
Professor Heinsohn says his team expects the species will quickly become extinct.
"We modelled it all and we said that some time in the early 2030s, at this rate there won't be any swift parrots left."
Mr Tzaros says the swift parrots sighted in central Victoria were feeding mainly on private land and roadsides.
He is concerned future development could affect the species.
"We don't have to go obliterating habitat every time we want to … establish a new residential estate for people," he says.
The federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act requires projects that could affect threatened species like the swift parrot to be referred to the federal government for approval.
A City of Greater Bendigo spokesperson says planning applications "generally don't assess direct impacts on fauna, like the swift parrot".
"A planning permit is generally needed to remove native vegetation in cases where a lot is over 4,000 square metres, or in road reserves," the spokesperson said in a statement.
"The obligation to refer to the Commonwealth [under the EPBC Act] doesn't rest with the city … it sits with the proponent of the application."
RMIT professor in sustainability and urban planning Sarah Bekessy would like to see a broader application of the value placed on Ramsar wetlands for migratory birds.
More than 2,400 wetland sites across the globe are protected under the international Ramsar Convention, including intermittent habitat.
"Impact assessment really just looks at things that are present on a site rather than things that could use the site," Professor Bekessy said.
"This is problematic for so many species that are either migratory or intermittently use habitat for nesting or for food."
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