Common name
Princess Parrot
Scientific name
Polytelis alexandrae
EPBC status
Vulnerable
Found in
Northern Territory, South Australia, Western Australia
Description
Princess Parrots are slender medium-size parrots known for their bright combination of fluoro green, olive, pink and violet plumage, with a long tapering tail.
The species is found in arid regions across Western Australia, the Northern Territory and South Australia. Princess Parrots move widely can be absent for long periods, then large numbers of birds may be seen breeding in a particular area for a short time, possibly triggered by rainfall events.
Princess Parrots are a popular pet species in captivity, however knowledge about their biology in the wild is limited due to their unpredictable movement patterns and scarcity in their remote landscape. Current threats are poorly understood, but Princess Parrots are likely to be negatively affected by the same habitat changes that have threatened many other central Australian animals over the twentieth century.
Key threats
- Predation by feral cats.
- Inappropriate fire regimes – increase in frequency and intensity of fires leading to loss of hollows and decrease in food availability.
- Spread of Buffel Grass – increase in spread and intensity of fire leading to loss of habitat.
Priority actions
- Targeted feral cat control, particularly around breeding aggregations of Princess Parrots.
- Trial nest boxes in/near breeding aggregations to boost breeding success.
- Fire management at a landscape scale.
- Targeted weed management to prevent spread and control Buffel Grass in stands of old hollow-bearing trees.
Protecting threatened species
We will be updating these Threatened Species Action Plan profiles to include:
- projects to support species recovery
- information on their trajectory.
Please check back for updates.
Read our Threatened Species Action Plan 2022-2032.
Read more
Further information on this species, including links to conservation planning documents can be found here: Species Profile and Threats database - Princess Parrot
Sources
The key threats and priority actions come from conservation planning documents and the Action Plan for Australian Birds 2020. We have made some adjustments based on new information. It is not a list of all plausible threats and relevant actions, but a subset of each that are high impact and can be feasibly addressed over the life of the Action Plan to improve trajectories for the priority species.