CHRISTINE WEBSTER
THE Riverland West Landcare and SA Regent Parrot Recovery Group are hoping to develop a sustainable way of deterring regent parrots from eating fruit and nut crops.
A number of the vulnerable bird species have been fitted with high tech solar-powered backpacks, to track their movements through the Riverland’s horticultural areas.
Riverland West Landcare program manager, Karen Bishop, said the project had been funded by a $43,000 grant from the Murraylands and Riverland Landscape Board.
Information from the monitors on the birds’ backpacks is downloaded onto a computer by ecologists in Adelaide to map their roosting, feeding and breeding behaviours.
Ms Bishop said this identified where the regent birds were moving to after breeding season.
“During the breeding season, they will always be on the river corridor, because they breed in mature river gums with hollows,” Ms Bishop said.
She said the data collected indicated the birds tended to spend a lot of time at Gluepot north of Waikerie and Swan Reach.
Ms Bishop said the monitoring program aimed to determine how much time the parrots spend on fruit properties.
She said regent parrots were known to feed on almonds, which was a concern for the almond industry.
In 2007, there was a documented case of regent parrots being shot in an almond orchard in Victoria’s Mallee.
Since then efforts have been made by the Australian almond industry to understand the ecology of the parrots and find supportive rather than destructive means to coexist.
Ms Bishop said the solar powered backpacks being worn by the regent parrots collected data to identify how much time they were spending on almond properties.
“We want to identify what time of year they are spending on the almond properties and whether it is because they haven’t got enough of their natural food source,” she said.
“They may need to supplement their diet.”
Ms Bishop said the plan was to eventually provide this information to the horticultural industry and identify ways to deter the regent parrots from eating fruit and nuts.
She said one solution could be to encourage growers to plant cover crops, which regent parrots could feed on.
“Perhaps native plants could be planted around the perimeters of the properties, so the regent parrots can feed on berries and the nectar,” she said.
Ms Bishop said this would also encourage beneficial insects or other birds that eat pest insects, such as the carpophilus beetle, to almond orchards.
“This beetle can get into the nut and you don’t even know it until you crack them open and they have been infected,” she said.
Ms Bishop said regent parrots also provided some benefits to almond growers.
“They can kill all the mummy nuts, which harbour diseases for the next crop,” she said.
South Australia’s Department of Environment and Water (DEW) said regent parrots were classified as vulnerable in both the National Parks and Wildlife (NPW) Act and the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.
It said no permits have been issued to destroy wildlife for regent parrots and the maximum penalty for doing so was $7500 or up to 18 months imprisonment for “unlawfully taking”.
Under the NPW Act SA the court also must impose an additional penalty of up to $750 for each animal of a vulnerable species involved in the commission of the offence upon conviction.
Almond Board of Australia CEO, Ross Skinner said the almond industry relied heavily on non-destructive means of control, which included gas noise guns and planes flying over orchards.
He said deterrence measures needed to meet strict guidelines and laser lights were presently being trialled to keep birds out of orchards in the lead-up to harvest.
“The industry’s producers are looking to plant flora shelterbelts that would aid both birds and bee populations,” Mr Skinner said.
“The sowing of flowering cover crops in winter after rain events are becoming a standard practice on orchards.”