Aussie Finch Forum

Re: The Paradise parrot do you think it could still exist?
by desertbirds on 19 Aug 2011, 21:47

Paradise parrot - Gone . Night Parrot i believe is still out there and highly like one will surface over the next 12 months. The late Ian Frost (road train driver and parrot breeder and a genuinely nice bloke) reckons he saw a night parrot on one of his trips from Adelaide to Darwin. Ive seen dead parrots on the road and one of them possibly could have been a Night parrot too. Its like how many times do you turn around and go back only to see a squished budgie.I think what is in the Night parrots favour it that has some very remote habitat in its range.Its a nice map NRG but its a big country and you have to be in the right place at the right time.

Interesting to look at my comments from 2011. Ive re-visted this site several time this week and we have cameras set up on a water source. We will pick them up in the morning. having looked at the site,it has everything going for it for the birds to be there. Recent rains and loads of seeding spinifex. You can see some new growth in the burnt areas as well. There is a big list of plant species right here and many native grasses. We had Mulgas (look hard second pic) coming in well after the sun went down and not too far away Jayburd and i saw Loads of Crimson Chats with Orange Chats and Yellow Rumped Thornbill. On the way there Monday night we also spotted a good flock of Majors and a Nightjar on the way home. I had previously thought of looking for Night Parrots in this area but its a big area .

Wether we get a photo or not , young Julian could be one the very few people ever to see a family group as he spotted four birds.All the pics above are taken within a few hundred metre radius , not far from where we saw the parrots. Looks a very likely spot.

Fingers crossed for some pics

DB,

My heart skipped a beat when I saw the thread titled with photos attached...

Fingers crossed for a result from the camera traps. Will you be able to install them for a longer period of time if this round is unsuccessful?

Be sure to post some photos from the cameras regardless of the results. The photos are always interesting.

Good luck
Ian

Yes we will be placing more cameras in different areas next week as there is more water about 10k away , which is a natural source and permanent.I checked the site to list our sighting but they like accurate locations and for now im dubious about that. Also it can be 3 months for an accepted or not accepted.

Unfotunatley i think there maybe several water sources.Its a station with cattle so some respect must be shown to the owner and he doesnt want mobs of people running around at night and i would also dislike that immensely. We will have more gear by Thursday but history says the birds aren`t seen twice which is a worry.
Ive studied all i can on the birds and one thing that sticks out is that the museum skins are accurate and the field guide sketches appear to be a little exagerated with the shape.The bird that was close to the windscreen was a liitle more yellow on the belly than the skins. The habitat from QLD sightings is also very close to the habitat in the area but ours looks a little better preserved , full credit to the land holder.

I appreciate the need for discretion about the location. Twitchers can get fairly full on. The princess parrots on the aboriginal land is a prime example. At least with the np, most are aware that the chances of it being resighted are slim.

Get in contact with Tony Palliser. He is a very reasonable guy. You can be as vague as you like until they agree to your terms. I'm sure they would agree not to disclose the location as required. They do prescribe to "ethical birding" http://www.eremaea.com/BirdlineRecentSi ... Birdline=6

Hmmm, too much water... Yes good for the birds in general but does not tie them to a single location.

Fingers crossed
Ian

Ive tried to ring him Ian and thanks for the heads up. The Princess Parrot fiasco is my main concern.There is too much water in troughs but its a stretch for birds to drink from due to the level. Looked like mostly Honeyeater poo around the trough (leaking float valve had us pondering) but smaller poo around the source we found and lots of it. Quite a few ground birds where we set the cameras. The suspense is KILLING ME AAAHHHHHHHHH. Hopefully some night pics tomorrow and we see parrots at night but not night parrots .

desertbirds wrote:...snip....
Ive studied all i can on the birds and one thing that sticks out is that the museum skins are accurate and the field guide sketches appear to be a little exagerated with the shape.The bird that was close to the windscreen was a liitle more yellow on the belly than the skins.

That's why I'm utterly convinced,apart from size, that the bird I saw in 2002 near Uluru was a night parrot.it too was yellower one belly than a budgie. The spot looked exactly like the terrain in your photos too.

Hope they are out there. And in numbers. Advantage of territory like that is there is lots of space to hide in.
LML

Unfortunately nothing has turned up on camera I will post a few pics of what we did find later on. It appeared to be quite windy at times and lots of pics of moving bushes. We will relocate cameras to another water and have another go.

Thanks BB, unfortunatley we`ve all seen crows, roos and cattle

Tintola made an interesting comment today, perhaps with lots of green tucker around they dont need to drink. The other thing that i find really bizzare is that we didnt get any other birds over three nights and mornings ?? We saw qiute a few birds hanging around when we were there though. I think we also got a snake but i cant tell as its hard to pick from a roo tail.