January - hatching

Volunteers are working on the summer monitoring program

The summer monitoring program at Melaleuca conducted by the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Tasmania is in full swing.

Volunteers monitor supplementary feed tables for two hours in the morning and two hours in the late afternoon. They use spotting scopes to identify individual adult OBPs by their leg bands.

They also keep an eye on the health of OBPs by observing their feathers, behaviour and movement.

OBP eggs begin to hatch 21-24 days after laying

OBPs are breeding - mostly in nestboxes - in buttongrass plains around Melaleuca in South West Tasmania.

Newly hatched young have sparse off-white down and are blind for the first week.

Female OBPs continue to incubate for up to 10 days after hatching while the male feeds the female.

After this time, both parents feed their brood. Nestlings are banded by professionals in the OBP Recovery Program before they leave the nest. These bands are unique identifiers for each bird [which stay on their legs for life].