Articles

Naturalist Kate Eccles reflects on the importance of childhood connection with nature

The Mosman Parks and Bushland Association was formed in the 1964 by residents protesting against a road being bulldozed through natural bushland in Mosman. This group became the birthplace for Australia's bush regeneration movement.

A critical problem for Forty Spotted Pardalotes breeding is a native fly which lays its eggs inside their nests. When the eggs hatch, the maggots come out and burrow under the skin of the 40-Spotted Pardalote nestlings and suck their blood. But a unique conservation project might have found a solution

It is unusual that there's only three species of parrot that migrate across open water in the world. They all migrate across Bass Strait, and they're all on the threatened species list. These are the Swift Parrot and the Orange-Bellied Parrot, which are both critically endangered, and the Blue-Winged Parrot, which has just been listed as vulnerable.

Bruny Island is a really special place. It's got an incredible diversity of habitats. It's relatively undeveloped, relatively undamaged. So on Bruny Island you can see things like threatened species of birds, still breeding on this island, which is really a wonderful thing.

Dr Andrew Hingston collected discarded beer bottles as a kid on the east Tamar highway to save up money for a second-hand pair of binoculars. From there came a lifelong love of birds and the natural world

Why are old trees so important for endangered woodland birds? It takes a tree 100 years or more, generally, to start developing hollows. These hollows are critical for nest sites for these birds

Do we want to have a world with Swift Parrots, or don't we? If we do, we've got to act right now because we're running out of time fast. Here are 8 critical challenges for the Swift Parrot.

There is a lot of positive stuff and a nice road map laid out to recover the endangered Forty Spotted Pardalote, including through a project that's being run by the Bruny Island Environment Network called the Threatened Woodland Birds of Bruny Island.

An extraordinary conservation project on Bruny Island is building nest boxes tailored to help one of the world's rarest birds. The project is figuring out how to let Forty-Spotted pardalotes in but keeps others out.

Swift Parrots are critically endangered. The one thing that has kept the Swift Parrot going, is that there are two islands, Bruny Island and Maria Island, where there are no sugar gliders. And on these islands, the birds can breed successfully if there is sufficient food.

The Swift Parrot is a little bright green parrot, it's about 60 grams or so - about half the size of a Rosella, that flys at very high speeds - up to 88 kilometres an hour, making it the fasted parrot on planet Earth. It breeds in Tasmania and migrates across Bass Strait each year.