Category: Night Parrots

John Young brought home the holy grail of Australian bird-watching – he found night parrots. But then the story gets murky. Penny Olsen’s book Nigh Parrot gives the detail that the keenest of birders want, the story behind every sighting ever made right up to today’s conservation efforts for the known populations and the work underway to establish if there are more. This Audubon Society magazine article gives the summary that almost every other birder wants. Why does it have to be this way? As the poet James Elroy Flecker observed, ‘men are unwise and curiously planned’.

The bird world was agog in 2013 when details of the rediscovery, in the Diamantina, of the night parrot emerged. Since there the population number and range has extended. Those good years across the centre within the last decade have helped, the spread of feral cats hasn’t. Some serious conservation is now going on to secure the species.

Loudmouths fall under the spell of the Night parrot. This was just Search the First! And we reckon we’re on the right track and we’re having fun while searching.

Night parrot dreaming says it all – many a birdo has dreamt of finding a night parrot. Many have tried but none succeeded until John Yound found some in May 2013. This article by Simon Mustoe was written the year earlier.