The internet wants me to meet birds. To like, look, link, hook up, follow and crack on. In my suburb, in my limping, thickening demographic. Lovely shining faces pop up at the edges of the screen, "Hi, you're only five miles away, would you like to chat?"

Well, no, but I do crave a wild life, a pretty face.

Rose Robins in Glen Waverley? Lovely.

Bowerbirds in Benalla? Sure.

Birdline Victoria is a facebook group with 438 members that posts sightings of rare and unusual birds.

Swift Parrots in trees beside Macleod station? A dream rendezvous, Let's go.

Endangered, fewer than 2000 in the wild, these are the Australian birds falling most rapidly toward extinction.

Migrants at risk

Swift Parrots breed in Tasmania and forage over summer before rocketing across Bass Strait to escape colder weather. They  hunt flowering eucalypts on the mainland, some reaching as far north as the Queensland border, others travelling east toward Adelaide.

Some will be in a Melbourne suburb today.

This day in Birdwood Avenue, Macleod, they are easy to find. A gaggle of twitchers is pointing long lenses at the top of a blossoming yellow-box. Word gets around.

Rowdy musk and rainbow lorikeets crowd the lower branches, ripping into flowers with the table manners of medieval royalty.

Swift parrots gather modestly higher in the canopy and chatter in subdued and more musical voices.

Swinging upside down to feed at the ends of flimsy branches they show off red faces with a blue cap and a mostly green body. In flight flashes of underarm ardour are revealed – dazzling scarlet and dark wing feathers.

Tim Dolby is an author and blogger and is moderator of Birdline Victoria.

"In pre-web times sightings took months to share. You'd go home, write a letter to a journal, wait for publication and watch the letterbox for a response," he says.

"Now feedback can be instant.

"See something unusual? Wonder what it is? Upload a photo, you might get an ID while the bird is still in front of you. It's dynamic.

"It builds interest in conservation and we get scientific data about behavior and location of rare birds".

Tim verifies and evaluates posts.

Breeding sites of birds at risk will not be revealed. Whereabouts of the most endangered species remain secret.

Tim Dolby's hope for avian-human matchmaking online?

"Birdwatching will become more accessible and popular. It can only be good for conservation and our birds".

Swift Parrot Facts

Endangered

There are fewer than 2000 birds in the wild and the population is in rapid decline.

Threats

• Sugar Gliders, which eat eggs, chicks and adult birds in nesting hollows;
• Logging of breeding sites, which cause birds to nest into smaller areas, making them more vulnerable to sugar gliders; and
• The Regional Forest Agreement, which exempts Tasmanian government from laws intended  to protect endangered species.

Migration

September-December: Nest and breed in restricted range in Tasmania. Forage over summer

March-May: Cross Bass Strait to feed in flowering eucalypts on mainland

September: Return to Tasmania