The surgeon John White described the swift parrot in 1790 as the red-shouldered paroquet. It was placed in the genus Lathamus by René Primevère Lesson in 1830. The swift parrot is only distantly related to the blue-winged and orange-bellied parrots, suggesting that two separate lineages might have become migratory. A 2011 genetic study including nuclear and mitochondrial DNA found that the swift parrot was an early offshoot from a lineage giving rise to the genera Prosopeia, Eunymphicus and Cyanoramphus, diverging around 14 million years ago. Its migratory status might have facilitated the spread of its relatives through the Pacific.
Description
The swift parrot is about 25 cm long and has long pointed wings and long tapering tail feathers. It is mainly green with bluish crown and red on the face above and below the beak. The adult female is slightly duller, and the juvenile has a dark brown iris and a pale orange bill. The forehead to throat is crimson and there is also crimson patch at the top, edge of the wing. The female parrots are slightly duller than the males and with a creamy underwing bar. They are noisy, always active and showy, and are very fast with their direct flight. This parrots/species is also known as the Red-faced or Red-shouldered Parrot.
Breeding and social habits
The species breeds in Tasmania from September to December. It nests in tree hollows about 6–20 metres from ground level and usually with other breeding pairs. Eggs are white with 3–5 per clutch. Voice is of high pitched tinking chattering, piping pee-pit, pee-pit. They only breed from September to March.
Distribution
The swift parrot migrates across Bass Strait between Tasmania and the mainland of Australia. They arrive in Tasmania during September and return to south-eastern Australia during March and April. They can be found as far north as south-eastern Queensland and as far west as Adelaide in South Australia, although recent sightings have been restricted to the south-eastern part of the state.
Important Bird Areas
has identified the following sites as being important for swift parrots: ;New South Wales
Usually inhabiting: forests, woodlands, agricultural land and plantations, and also in urban areas.
Diet
s and grains, green vegetation, fruit, nectar and pollen, insects, grubs and larvae. The presence of the winter-flowering golden wattle is positively correlated with numbers of swift parrots overwintering in box–ironbark forest in central Victoria, while the presence of flowering eucalypts has no correlation.
Conservation status
It is thought that only 1000 pairs remain in the wild. Habitat destruction and loss of old trees with nesting hollows are critical factors in its decline. Sugar gliders are the major predator of nesting parrots in mainland Tasmania, accounting for 85% of kills, but are absent from Bruny and Maria Islands.
The swift parrot is listed as threatened on the Victorian Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act. Under this Act, an Action Statement for the recovery and future management of this species has been prepared.
On the 2007 advisory list of threatened vertebrate fauna in Victoria, the swift parrot is listed as endangered.
