To mark National Endangered Species Day, the Creating Superb Homes for Parrots project was launched at Bloomfield Park.

The day started with an official program launch and was followed by a community planting event to provide new habitat trees for superb parrots in the area.

There was also a presentation of the hollow augmentation technique by qualified arborists Henry Schoemark and Adam Puglisi.

Orange City Council city presentation manager Nigel Hobden said the day created important awareness of the responsibilities of community members to the environment.

“It’s part of our role of conserving our environment and educating the public about what aspects of our environment in the way of biodiversity are missing,” he said.

“This can be due to land clearance urbanisation and the introduction of feral species that compete with native species.”

“Apart from creating a habitat, planting food sources for them is key,” he said.

“Particularly acacia species that naturally grow in this area such as wattles. People can plant those in their backyards.”

Minister for Local Government Paul Toole said it was a “fantastic project” to be involved with.

“It’s important to do our part for the environment because we know there are predicted to be somewhere between 5,000 to 10,000 superb parrots in the country,” Mr Toole said.

“They’re now on the federal list of being an endangered species. We need to do more to protect native animals.

“It’s important that we protect species like this to ensure future generations can enjoy the beauty of an animal like the superb parrot.”

Members of the community along with Canobolas Rural Technology High School students participated in the community tree planting in the afternoon.

More than 200 artificial hollows, specifically created for superb parrots, have been created across the Central West.

The Creating Superb Homes project is the largest hollow-augmentation project ever implemented in Australia.