On Sunday Night, I had the pleasure of hearing John Young talk about the Night Parrot. I had debated going but knew I would probably regret it if I let the anxiety win.
Russell Woodford did a fantastic write up at Birding Aus. The formatting is a bit wonky, no paragraphs, but it covers the main points. I also thought that the following was interesting:
- John thought that people may have incorrectly identified bourkes parrots as being nights parrots in the past. This means that some of the data may not be accurate.
- He thinks that the Qld parrots seem to be isolated to a very small colony. Perhaps the one that *may* have been sighted in the NT was different, somehow?
- While he despised feral cats, he was sympathetic towards people who had domesticated cats that are properly controlled. So many birders are anti cats, which can upset me as I’m very much a cat person.
The footage was fascinating. It didn’t seem like a kangaroo, as others have described it. It reminded me of a cockatoo or a lorikeet bouncing. I don’t know if the extended wings is a typical behaviour.
I completely support his reasons for not releasing further information. We can’t risk it – not until we have a better of understanding of what we are dealing with. Youngs approach is slow but it is the one that poses minimal risk to the birds.
It was a compelling evening. Additionally, events like this attract the ‘whos who’ of the local birding community. I can now say I’ve seen James Mustafas awesome beard.
I’m not overly obsessed with finding the bird but I hope that John Young is able to learn more about it. It’s behaviour is so unique.
Oh – and has anyone researched whether it is similar in any way to the ground parrot or kakapo?
Leave a Reply