Rainbow Lorikeets are a popular Australian pet species that have also established invasive populations outside their native range. We test whether stable isotope analysis can identify recently escaped or released captive lorikeets within wild populations, informing management along different stages of the pet-release invasion pathway.
Wild-caught parrots are sometimes laundered into trade as captive-bred. Using a citizen-science campaign that collected thousands of feathers from wild and captive birds across South Australia, we show stable isotope analysis can distinguish captive from wild origin with up to 90% accuracy in galahs and 74% accuracy in other parrot species.
Analyzing roughly 14,000 online sales listings covering 235 parrot and songbird species, we found 55% of traded parrot species and 64% of traded songbird species were non-native to Australia, with most at extreme risk of establishing invasive populations. Traded abundance was best predicted by breeding and handling requirements, availability, and appearance.