hello tweets,

i thought that you all might be interested in this story.

regards,

Deborah Wisti-Peterson, PhD Candidate nyneve at u.washington.edu
Department of Zoology, University of Washington, Seattle, Wash, USA
Visit me on the web: http://students.washington.edu/~nyneve/
Life is better when you are reading a good book -- Author Tim Green

----------forwarded------------
From: Hugo Phillipps
Sent: 7. december 2000 00:43
Subject: OBP news and nestbox cam

Hi everybody -

A Birds Australia media release below for your information. It contains
news about the Orange-bellied Parrot (OBP) recovery program and also about
live images of OBP chicks which can be seen on our website. If you want to
see these, go to our website and click where it says **LIVE** (and then it
would help to click on 'What am I looking at?' for an explanation). The
lighting in the nestbox is not on all the time, and sometimes the stated
timing is a bit off, but you can often see the chicks (and sometimes their
parents) if you persist.

Please forward the media release to other birding lists if you think it
would be of interest to subscribers.

Cheers,
Hugo
----------------------------------

A RARE WIN FOR WILDLIFE

MEDIA RELEASE DECEMBER 7TH, 2000.

Good environmental news stories are about as rare as the Orange-bellied
Parrot, the rarest of Australian parrots and one of our most endangered
species. However, the reintroduction program at Birchs Inlet, Tasmania,
now in its second year has successfully formed the nucleus of a new
breeding population.

Last year a total of 33 birds were released at Birch's Inlet with the aim
of re-establishing the breeding population once known to have existed
there. In the past month at least 4 and possibly 6 of the banded birds
have returned to the release site, an unprecedented result for the Recovery
Team. These have joined the 29 released birds for this year and already
they have begun to breed with the first eggs being laid within the last two
weeks.

Orange-bellied Parrot Recovery Project Officer Mark Holdsworth says the
Birch's Inlet population is vital to the future of the species. "At
present the major population is located at Port Davey, this means a single
wildfire or introduced disease could destroy a large proportion of the wild
population". "By re-establishing the population at Birch's Inlet we are
reducing the chances of a catastrophic event wiping out the species".

With as low little as 150 breeding individuals left in the wild the
captive-breeding program has provided a unique opportunity to help boost
the species' survival chances. While much more effort is required to
restore important winter and migration habitat the early success at Birchs
Inlet gives environmentalists hope for the future of this icon species and
makes all the hard work seem worthwhile.

The captive population is in full breeding mode again this year at Taroona,
Hobart. The first six chicks, the subject of a live webcast, are within 2
weeks of fledging which is about one month earlier than normal and 10
females are busily incubating at least 33 eggs. These will hatch between
now and Christmas and in the New Year.

At present visitors to the website can see the youngsters starting to find
their feet and being fed by both parents. Their colourful feathers are
growing fast and soon will take them from their nest to join the
captive-breeding program or be released at Birchs Inlet next spring.

The site is located at www.birdsaustralia.com.au and is best viewed during
daylight hours when the chicks are very active.

ENDS

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, IMAGES FROM THE WEBCAST OR INTERVIEWS PLEASE
CONTACT SUSIE GRANT ON 03 988 22622.
----------------------------------

Hugo Phillipps
Communications Coordinator
Birds Australia
415 Riversdale Road
HAWTHORN EAST 3123, Australia
Tel: (03) 9882 2622, fax: (03) 9882 2677
Email: <h.phillipps at birdsaustralia.com.au>
Web site: <http://www.birdsaustralia.com.au>