The excited screech of rainbow lorikeets tells me I’m on the mainland when I travel beyond Tasmania’s shores.
That’s the thing about birds, they speak of time and place, each region has its special birds although the beautiful and cheerful lorikeets are more widespread than most.
To my surprise, though, in recent months I’ve discovered that you do not need to visit the mainland for the rainbow lorikeet experience. Walking across Sandown Park in Lower Sandy Bay recently the musk lorikeets I usually hear there had been replaced by the noisier and more aggressive mainland species.
What I had been told in recent years was confirmed. Tasmania is under a rainbow lorikeet invasion.
For birdwatchers who enjoy the “rainbows” this might be a good thing, but for our Tasmanian birds as a whole this could spell disaster.
Landcare Tasmania is currently undertaking a rainbow lorikeet blitz to keep the pests at bay, trapping and euthanising the birds but there are fears the organisation might be fighting a losing battle.
Because of aviary escapes and intentional releases, rainbow lorikeets have been increasing in number since at least 2008. They feed on flowering gums and ornamental shrubs and fruit trees, displacing native parrots and honeyeaters, including stealing nesting hollows used by the critically endangered swift parrot.
The rainbows also interbreed with musk lorikeets, which places at risk the gene pool of the Tasmanian sub-species.
The eradication program relies on a team of volunteers co-ordinated by Lalani Hyatt
of Landcare’s rainbow lorikeet management group.
The lorikeets are trapped at feeding stations and then collected by specialist officers who euthanise them, under strict Natural Resources and Environment Biosecurity protocols. A team of tree-climbers also destroys lorikeet nests.
Although the number of rainbow lorikeets in the state is unknown, it appears to be considerable, possibly in the thousands. So far 600 lorikeets have been dealt with this year alone.
A former parks and wildlife service ranger, Ms Hyatt said it was a painful process to control the lorikeets. “It breaks my heart but it has to be done, otherwise we’ll lose musk lorikeets, rosellas, cockatoos and our endemic honeyeaters,” she said. “I like to think we will succeed but it’s likely to be ongoing.”
The volunteers – alerted to the program through social media and by word of mouth – are given custom-designed trapping devices. These allow doors to be closed by remote control, so they can be operated from a distance.
“The volunteers are seeing rainbow lorikeets on their properties, in gardens and so on and are happy to remove them,” said Ms Hyatt.
The rainbow lorikeet is native to Australia’s south-eastern and northern coastal regions but it has also spread to Western Australia.
Meanwhile, interest in the rainbow lorikeet threat is growing in Tasmania. About 500 people have signed up to the lorikeet group’s Facebook page.