The Orange-bellied Parrot Tasmanian Program is committed to the protection, monitoring and management of the Orange-bellied Parrot (OBP) in Tasmania. As part of the Tasmanian State Government, we provide an authoritative and up-to-date source of information on the status of the OBP in Tasmania.
Working together with the National Recovery Team and volunteers, the OBP Tasmanian Program undertakes a range of activities to assist with the survival of the species in the wild.
Program activities
The cornerstone of population recovery efforts has been the release of captive-bred birds. These releases:
The Tasmanian Government committed $2.5 million to deliver a fit-for-purpose captive breeding facility at Five Mile Beach, which officially opened in July 2019. The facility allows for birds to be bred to add to the captive insurance population and for release into the wild.
Since 2019, between 18 and 34 captive-bred adults from the Five Mile Beach Captive Management Facility and partner institutions have been released at Melaleuca each Spring, and up to 50 captive-bred juveniles have been released each Summer.
Wild releases in Tasmania currently fall into two categories:
Adult Spring Release at Melaleuca:
This supplementation increases the number of breeding pairs at Melaleuca (the only breeding site for OBPs) and balances the sex ratio of returned birds.
Juvenile Release:
The aim of the juvenile release is to increase the speed of the OBP population recovery. This stems from the idea that the younger the bird, the less habituated it is to life in captivity, and the more capacity it has to learn wild behaviours from the wild birds at Melaleuca prior to its migration north. Captive bred juvenile birds typically have a lower migration return rate than wild born juveniles, but significantly higher that captive bred adults.
Before the release of captive-bred birds to the wild, veterinarians assess physical condition and screen birds for diseases, parasites and pathogens.
NRE Tas undertakes close monitoring of the wild population and captive-bred releases in the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area (TWWHA), and supports the population by providing artificial nest boxes and supplementary food, mitigating threats, releasing captive-bred birds, and working with the Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service to implement an ecological burn program to improve OBP foraging habitat for future breeding seasons.
In 2023, the Tasmanian Government announced a $1.3 million investment into the NRE Tas Orange-bellied Parrot Tasmanian Program, to maintain critical infrastructure at the Five Mile Beach Captive Management Facility, and to implement VHF tracking of OBPs during their autumn migration.
The new tracking project, which commenced during the autumn 2024 migration, will build on a pilot project run by Zoos Victoria and NRE Tas during the autumn 2023 migration.
There is still a long way to go, but the Tasmanian Government is committed to supporting the complex and innovative efforts to save the OBP.
Supplementary food is provided to orange-bellied parrots at their breeding ground
Orange-bellied Parrot Migration Tracking Project
2024 Tracking Results
The Orange-bellied Parrot (OBP) Tasmania Program has completed its first year of a two-year migration tracking project to track OBPs during their annual migration. This early work is helping to understand more about timing, flight path and risks to OBPs during migration and has been funded by the Tasmanian Government.
The tracking data presented in the 2024 Interim Report reveal valuable insights into the hidden life of the parrot, classified as endangered under the Threatened Species Act 1995.
A total of 12 juvenile OBPs were detected outside of Melaleuca with birds transiting north along Tasmania’s west coast up to sites on both the north-west and King Island, before heading across the Bass Strait.
Most birds undertaking long distance flights were detected at night along the west coast of Tasmania and across the Bass Strait. On departure from Melaleuca, these birds began their migration around sunset and arrived at sites across the north-west early the following morning. Across the Bass Strait, one bird was detected travelling between an NRE Tas site and a Zoos Victoria site in five and a half hours covering a distance of over 320 kilometres at an average speed of more than 58 kilometres an hour!
Some OBPs were recorded stopping over on King Island and north-west Tasmania for weeks to months, moving between sites before flying to Victoria. A small number of OBPs remained at these areas until the end of the study period, which was in early to mid-June.
These details on the timing and habitat use of OBPs during migration will help inform management efforts to conserve the species into the future.
NRE Tas thanks our project collaborators Zoos Victoria and contributors ACEN Australia and Westcoast Renewable Energy who provided data for this project. Further tracking work next year will add greater insight into consistency of behaviour between years and help to build a fuller picture of where OBPs travel on their migration each year.
Orange-bellied Parrot Migration Tracking 2024 Interim Report (PDF 4Mb)
Orange-bellied Parrot Migration Tracking 2024 Data Processing Report (PDF 989Kb)
VHF Tracking Technology
The Orange-bellied Parrot Migration Tracking Project (OBP MTP) uses Very High Frequency (VHF) radio technology to follow OBPs along their migration. VHF tracking involves attaching small radio transmitters to birds and placing receiver stations throughout their migration range that listen out for radio signals from the transmitters as the birds pass by.
How it works
This technology works the same way as 'walkie talkie' radio communication, with one unit transmitting a radio signal (the tag attached to the bird) and the other unit 'listening out' for and receiving the radio signal. Much like walkie talkies, the restriction with VHF technology is that you do not know exactly where radio signals are coming from, only that the transmitters are within the range of the receiving antenna. The antennae used in the OBP MTP have an average range of about five kilometres however, our network of antennae have shown that signals can be detected from at least 10 kilometres away when environmental conditions allow the signals to travel further. For example, on multiple occasions we detected the radio signal from a tagged bird simultaneously at two separate receivers in some instances spaced up to 20 km apart.
Locating tracked birds using VHF
Unlike direct observations of OBPs, the VHF technology used for tracking does not allow us to pinpoint the exact location of birds. Each time a transmission from a bird tag is detected by a receiver station, the station also records the signal strength of the transmission. Like the walkie talkie analogy, this measure of signal strength can be used to calibrate approximately how far the transmitter is from the receiver, whether nearby, resulting in a loud and clear signal, or far away, resulting in a weak and patchy signal. Other factors can also affect signal strength, such as weather conditions and physical obstacles between the transmitter and the receiver, such as trees or hills. This limits the ability to calculate the accurate location of a bird based on VHF radio signal.
The OBP MTP uses directional antennae, which means signal strength varies not only with the distance from the receiver, but also the position of the transmitter relative to the direction of the antenna. While the exact origin of the radio signal cannot be pinpointed based on the signal strength recorded at the receiver, a three-dimensional region can be defined that encompasses all possible transmission locations for a given signal strength. For a transmission with strong signal strength, the region of possible locations is confined to a small area close to the receiver. For a weaker signal, the range of possible locations is a much larger area that extends predominantly in the direction the antenna is pointing but also further above, laterally and behind the antenna.
How has the data been processed
In 2024, NRE Tas developed peer-reviewed methods for classifying detections of tagged OBPs using global best-practice and estimating the potential locations of OBP VHF detections based on signal strength. In 2025, NRE Tas is exploring calibration methods that aim to further refine and improve accuracy of location estimates.
Accessing tracking data
OBP tracking data can be view through
LISTmap here.
Please read the OBP Migration Tracking 2024 Data Processing Report prior to viewing tracking data to understand its suitability for specific uses and analyses. For more information and to access processed spatial OBP tracking data please contact: OBP.Program@nre.tas.gov.au
