Lathamus discolor
Silhouette: Farelli (photo), John E. McCormack, Michael G. Harvey, Brant C. Faircloth, Nicholas G. Crawford, Travis C. Glenn, Robb T. Brumfield & T. Michael Keesey · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~50% in a week ~80%
The swift parrot (Lathamus discolor), also known by the palawa kani name swift waylitja, is a species of broad-tailed parrot, found only in southeastern Australia. The species breeds in Tasmania during the summer and migrates north to southeastern mainland Australia from Griffith-Warialda in New South Wales and west to Adelaide in the winter. It is a nomadic migrant, and it settles in an area only when there is food available. The Swift Parrot was voted 2023 Bird of the Year in The Guardian Australia and BirdLife Australia's biennial poll.
The species is critically endangered, and the severe predation by introduced sugar gliders (Petaurus breviceps) on breeding females and nests in some locations has demonstrated an unexpected but potentially serious new threat. Genetic evidence for the effective population size suggests that the minimum potential population size is now around 300–500 individual swift parrots. This supports the results of earlier studies that use demographic information about swift parrots to predict that the species could be extinct by 2031.
Habitat for the critically endangered swift parrot is being "knowingly destroyed" by logging because of government failures to manage the species' survival. Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Maria Island National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia |
More parks will be added in future updates.
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Skansen | 🇸🇪 Sweden | |
| 2 | Antwerp Zoo | 🇧🇪 Belgium | |
| 3 | Berlin Zoological Garden | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 4 | Wrocław Zoological Garden | 🇵🇱 Poland | |
| 5 | Hobart Zoo and Aquarium | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 6 | Wilhelma | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 7 | Schönbrunn Zoo | 🇦🇹 Austria | |
| 8 | Havana Zoo | 🇨🇺 Cuba | |
| 9 | Vogelpark Avifauna | 🇳🇱 Netherlands | |
| 10 | Adelaide Zoo | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 11 | Featherdale Sydney Wildlife Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 12 | Africarium | 🇵🇱 Poland | |
| 13 | Haus des Meeres | 🇦🇹 Austria | |
| 14 | Aquarium Berlin | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 15 | Baltic Sea Science Center | 🇸🇪 Sweden | |
| 16 | Aquatopia | 🇧🇪 Belgium | |
| 17 | terrarium ogrodu zoologicznego we Wrocławiu | 🇵🇱 Poland | |
| 18 | Zoodoo Wildlife Park | 🇦🇺 Australia |
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Swift Parrot sighting in Maria Island National Park on a given day, based on 83 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 45th most-seen of the 81 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 50%, and over a week to about 80%, if each day is a fresh chance.
October
In that month about 40% of wildlife watchers report a Swift Parrot in Maria Island National Park on a given day, against about 10% in January to July, the lowest months.
Between 11 am and 2 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Swift Parrot sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Maria Island National Park, in our data
Maria Island National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Swift Parrot sightings: about 20% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same family: Psittacidae
The closest relatives of the Swift Parrot that you can see in Maria Island National Park (family Psittacidae, New World and African Parrots) are Green Rosella (about 80%) and Yellow-Tailed Black Cockatoo (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Swift Parrot is recorded against all the birds logged in Maria Island National Park (83 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
