Ground Parrot

The ground parrot is a medium-sized parrot, growing up to 30 cm long and weighing approximately 80 grams. It is distinctive, with grass green plumage, black streaking on the head and hindneck, prominent pale-yellow wing bars and black and yellow barring on the abdomen, thighs and under-tail coverts. The irises are pale yellow, the bill is dark grey and the feet and legs are flesh-pink. They have a distinguishing bright red band above the cere. Males and females appear alike. Juveniles can be differentiated from adults in that they are slightly smaller, have duller yellow-olive plumage, absent red bands and thicker, bolder markings on the head and breast. When newly fledged, irises are dark grey-brown to brown in colour. The eastern and Tasmanian subspecies (wallicus and leachi) differ from the western subspecies (flaviventris) in that they have thicker and more prominent black markings on the head, neck and belly.

This species is endemic to Australia. Each subspecies occurs within its own geographically separated distribution. Subspecies wallicus, the eastern ground parrot, occurs in fragmented populations in coastal areas of south-eastern Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. It is distributed as far north as near Fraser or K'gari Island, and as far south as Portland. It was formerly present in South Australia, but has since gone regionally extinct. The eastern ground parrot occurs mainly in dry or moist coastal heathland or sedgeland with a dense foliage cover and a high density of favoured food plants. Subspecies flaviventris, the western ground parrot, only occurs in two disjunct populations in southern Western Australia, one in Fitzgerald River National Park, the other in Cape Arid National Park and Nuytsland Nature Reserve. It inhabits low, dry or swampy heathland near the coast, usually in areas that have been unburnt for long periods of time. Subspecies leachi, the Tasmanian ground parrot, is endemic to Tasmania, which hosts the largest population of the species as a whole. The Tasmanian ground parrot population is suspected to consist of more than 100,000 birds.