Long life to the Kilit!

A lovely though inconspicuous parrot species is finally receiving the conservation focus it badly needs, reports DAVID WAUGH

- DAVID WAUGH

WITH their elongated central tail feathers terminating in a spatula or racquet, the members of the genus Prioniturus, the racquet tails, form a distinctive group of parrots. Of the nine recognised species, three are found in Indonesia and six are confined to the Philippines where one, the handsome blue-headed racquet-tail (P. platenae), is endemic to the island of Palawan and its satellite islands.

The blue-headed racquet-tail, or “Kilit” as it is known in Palawan, inhabits lowland forest, forest edge and nearby cultivation up to at least 300m (984ft) above sea level, but due to extensive lowland deforestation its optimum habitat is severely fragmented and degraded. BirdLife International estimates its population at no more than 10,000 individuals and perhaps as few as 2,500. Therefore it is classified by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as Vulnerable to extinction. P. platenae shares the same habitat as the Philippine cockatoo (Cacatua haematuropygia), a Critically Endangered species endemic to the Philippine islands, with Palawan as its stronghold.

Because of the dire situation of the cockatoo, since 1999 the Loro Parque Fundación (LPF) has been the principal supporter of the Philippine Cockatoo Conservation Programme (PCCP) run by the Katala Foundation Inc. (KFI). Because of its status, the PCCP uses the cockatoo as a flagship species for biodiversity conservation, and inevitably this has somewhat overshadowed other species such as the racquet-tail. However, even if it has placed less emphasis than the cockatoo on getting the local communities involved, from the outset the PCCP has included the blue-headed racquet-tail in all of its scientific work.