Draft National Recovery Plan for the Swift Parrot

Public comment

You are invited to comment on this draft national recovery plan in accordance with the provisions of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) by 7 June 2019.

The Draft National Recovery Plan for the Swift Parrot (Lathamus discolor) was prepared by the Australian Government Department of the Environment and Energy and is proposed to be made as the national recovery plan for this species under the EPBC Act.

This draft recovery plan is a revision of the National Recovery Plan for the Swift Parrot (Lathamus discolor) (Saunders and Tzaros 2011). The 2011 recovery plan was reviewed in 2017 by an expert panel that concluded that a new recovery plan should be developed for the species.

The Swift Parrot breeds mostly on the east and south-east coast of Tasmania during summer and migrates to mainland Australia for winter, where it forages across a broad range of forest types. The species is listed in the Critically Endangered category under the EPBC Act. Ongoing habitat loss, particularly within the primary breeding areas in Tasmania, and predation by the introduced sugar glider are the primary threats to the Swift Parrot. Other threats include collisions with infrastructure and vehicles, competition for nesting and foraging resources and impacts due to climate change.

The draft national recovery plan provides information on distribution, habitat and threatening processes, and presents the actions considered necessary to recover this species.