Night parrot nonsense – what’s going on .. and why?
John Young responds to Night Parrot critics Was the Night parrot really found? By John Young? What’s Penny Olsen claiming? How can mere mortals figure out what is going on …
The ‘fat budgie’ was presumed extinct with no live sightings since 1922. But, but, but … , in May 2013, bird guide John Young, after a claimed 17,000 hours of searching, found night parrots in the Diamantina of south-west Queensland. He knew where to look as two dead specimens had been found in the region, one in 1996 and another in 2003, and almost more importantly, he worked out how to look. Since then, there are more sightings and much interest, and possibly skullduggery, in this enigmatic bird. In Night Parrot, Penny Olsen has written the most comprehensive book to date on the ‘fat budgie’.