For the past four years, Nature Foundation has worked closely with the Regent Parrot Recovery Team and the Murraylands Riverland Landscape Board to carry out annual Regent Parrot (Polytelis anthopeplus monarchoides) breeding surveys, contributing valuable information to regional conservation efforts.
The 2025 survey at Murbpook Nature Reserve was supported by a Murraylands Riverland Landscape Board Grassroots Grant and enabled the survey team to revisit known nesting areas and document how many pairs had returned to the reserve that year. Excitingly, the team detected a pair of nesting Regent Parrots in a new part of the reserve, identifying a third distinct nesting area at Murbpook.
The Regent Parrot is listed as Vulnerable in federal (EPBC Act 1999) and state (NP&W 1974) legislation and has undergone significant declines due to habitat loss (land clearance for agriculture), habitat degradation (due to altered river management) and increasing competition for hollows. Periods of below average rainfall will also influence food availability and the ability of the parents to provision chicks.
In a bid to further understand these threats, Nature Foundation has enjoyed collaborating with the Australian National University (ANU) to carry out research on nests at Murbpook Nature Reserve, and throughout the broader region, to monitor the overall reproductive success of those nests.
At the April Conservation Conversations webinar, we will hear from Dr Grace Hodder (ANU) who discussed the research ANU have done in South Australia, and interstate in NSW and VIC. Last season, ANU put trackers on 26 adults (including one on a Murbpook male) to track their flight and foraging patterns. We look forward to deepening our understanding of how the birds use, and travel across, the landscape and how we can support their conservation.
Learn more and register here.
This project is supported by the Murraylands and Riverland Landscape Board through funding from the Landscape Levies.
Photo for reference, kindly taken and supplied by Nature Foundation Volunteer Sara Laubscher during a previous Regent Parrot survey.