It arrives here in summer, nesting in eucalypt tree hollows adjacent to the parrot's feeding grounds of extensive coastal buttongrass plains. The reason is that this bird flies back from Tasmania to overwinter on mainland Australia near Port Phillip Bay in Victoria and in South Australia. These winter sites are well protected but often degraded. Rabbits or stock have damaged areas causing erosion problems. There is no point just protecting one aspect of this bird's habitat.
Juveniles stopover on King Island to feed on the coastal vegetation on their way to the mainland.
You will require Netscape 3.0 or later to view this movie. A lot of effort has been put into trying to downgrade this from endangered to vulnerable. Although birds have been successfully released into the wild, other methods need to be used to ensure its longterm survival. Every summer, the birds coming to the southwest are counted and juveniles are banded. Every bird is colour coded with different bands and also numbered so we can keep track of each bird.