as apples and pears and the gardens of suburban areas. The red-capped parrot bites predominantly red-skinned apples, attempting to retrieve the seed from inside. It does not eat the flesh but instead squeezes it to drink the juice. The fruit of other cultivated introductions are also selected, including almond, nectarine, olive, peaches, plums, pomegranates, and white cedar (Melia azedarach). Insects such as psyllids also form part of their diet. Insect larvae and lerp are also consumed, particularly in late winter and spring during its breeding season. The red-capped parrot primarily feeds on the ground, clasping the capsule of eucalypts or cones of sheoak with one foot and extracting the seed with their slender hooked beak. The dexterity it exhibits using its foot and beak to dislodge seeds is also shown by the long-billed black cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus baudinii). The two occur in the same habitat, both specialising in extracting the marri's store of large seeds. Both species prise marri seeds out of their woody capsule by manipulating it with the foot and lower mandible, and inserting the point of the upper mandible at openings in the seed-dispersing valve. The marks left by the lower mandible on the marri's nut distinguish it from those fed on by other parrots and cockatoos. The red-capped parrot leaves shallow marks around the opening of the capsule, with little damage to the husk. The species mainly feeds and manipulates objects with its left foot; limited sampling of Australian parrot species indicates that laterality is associated with larger size, and many of these are left-footed, though two other broad-tailed parrot species (crimson rosella and Australian ringneck) are right-footed, and smaller species show no preference. Parasites and diseases A parasitic protozoan, Eimeria purpureicephali, was isolated and described from a diseased bird in 2016. It is an intracellular parasite that lives in the host's gastrointestinal system. Species of bird louse recorded on the red-capped parrot include Forficuloecus palmai, Heteromenopon kalamundae and a member of the genus Neopsittaconirmus. Psittacine beak and feather disease virus was isolated and sequenced from a fledgling in 2016. Conservation Due to damage to orchard crops, these birds have been classified and shot as pests, although 1985 fieldwork in orchards around Balingup showed that the damage they inflicted was insignificant. Local government acts in the agricultural districts of Collie and West Arthur proclaimed them vermin in 1943. Despite this, its population is growing, possibly due to