Golden-Shouldered Parrot, Psephotus chrysopterygius

Problem:
Golden-shouldered Parrots are now found on only a few cattle stations in central Cape York Peninsula.  The processes that almost wiped them out operated largely unnoticed until recently.  Slow ‘cool' fires have allowed Broad-leaved Ti-trees to move in and shade out grassland areas.  This leads to the collapse of  termite nesting mounds and provides cover for Pied Butcherbirds that prey on nestling parrots.

Background Information:
The parrot once lived throughout central and southern Cape York Peninsula.  Its range has now been reduced to a strip 120km wide by 225km long around Musgrave and Koolburra Stations.  Golden-shouldered Parrots live in dry, open eucalypt woodlands and grasslands.  They nest in termite mounds on the ground.

Research:
Drs Stephen Garnett and Gabriel Crowley, working with the Department of Environment and Heritage, have identified the following major threats to Golden-shouldered parrots: grazing of cattle, and too infrequent firing (‘cool fires') which has seen grasslands replaced by Broad-leaved Ti-tree.

Solution:
Local land-owners have begun to manage fire so that ‘hot' fires occur every few years late in the dry season or early in the wet.  This way, with limited grazing, the flats stay grassy, Ti-tree is excluded, the termites have abundant food and the parrots can feed where they have an open view of predators.

The next species is the Gouldian Finch