Factors Affecting Flora Conservation - Victorian Environmental ...

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range of forest types, moving seminomadically
according to the timing of
eucalypt flowering in a particular year. It
breeds on the eastem coast of Tasmania, in
hollows in blue gums, only where the blue
gums are flowering. In March the majority
of the population migrate to Vicloria, while
some go ftirther north into New South Wales.
Here they feed primarily on flowering
eucalypts such as manna gum, grey box, red
ironbark, yellow gum, white box, and swamp
gum.
In the study area swift parrots favour dry
forests, however they will use moist forests
where suitable flowering eucalypts occur.
For example, approximately 200 birds visited
flowering manna gums at the YeUingbo Stale
Namre Reserve in March 1990. The marked
decline in numbers has been attributed to
clearance and harvesting of blue gum in
Tasmania, and extensive clearing of winterflowering
eucalypts in northern Victoria and
central New South Wales. In Victoria,
recommended conservation measures include
reducing harvesting of box-ironbark forests
in the north and planting winter-flowering
eucalypts in mral areas.
Orange-bellied parrot {Neophema
chrysogaster)
This small parrot visits Victoria each year
from its breeding range in south-western
Tasmania, where it nests in tree hollows in
eucalypt forests intersected by sedgeland
plains, and feeds on the seeds and flowers of
a variety of sedge and heathland species
(Brown and Wilson 1984). In autumn it
migrates to south-eastern Australia, where il
feeds in coastal salt-marsh and dune
vegetation on the seeds of salt-marsh shmbs.
The distribution and abundance of the
orange-bellied parrot has declined markedly
and now it is one of Australia's rarest birds,
widi a total population of fewer than 200
individuals, including about 50 breeding pairs
(Menkhorst et al. 1990). Figure 4 shows its
winter range - from the mouth of the Murray
River in Soudi Australia, east to Jack Smiths
Lake in South Gippsland. Most of the birds
use less than five overwintering sites, and at
times 50-70% of the population congregates
at three sites on the westem side of Port
Phillip Bay (Menkhorst et al. 1990). Some
use coastal salt-marsh on French Island in
March and April, when they first arrive from
Tasmania.
Orange-bellied parrot
The decline of the orange-beUied parrot can
be largely attributed to the clearance and
degradation of coastal salt-marsh, and a lack
of this overwintering habitat may be limiting
the species' recovery. A recovery plan was
developed in 1984, and implementation is
continuing (Brown and WUson 1984).
Monitoring indicates that population numbers
have remained stable over the last 10 years.
Sooty owl (Tyto tenebricosa)
The sooty owl is a nocturnal, forest-dwelling
owl listed as rare in Victoria. It nests and
roosts in hollows within large old eucalypts
(more than 2 m diameter), and feeds on a
variety of small to medium-sized mammals
and birds as well as insects. In Victoria, it is
restricted to tall eucalypt forests, often in
association with cool or warm temperate
rainforest. Two main populations occur, one
in the Central Highlands, and the other in
East Gippsland (see Figure 5).
Within the study area, sooty owls occur
primarUy in wet sclerophyll forest and damp
sclerophyll forest dominated by mountain
ash, and in riparian forest complex dominated
by mountain grey gum or manna gum. They
tend to occur within or near large patches of
old-growth (including mixed-age) mountain
ash forests in the mountain ash forests in the
Cenfral Highlands. Forests utilised for
timber production (and/or aft'ected by
wildfire) may be less suitable habitat for
sooty owls because they have fewer of the