Night, night to one poor Night Parrot

There has been an exciting discovery in far western Queenland. It has been reported in The Australian newspaper that a dead Night Parrot has been discovered.

The Australian has learned that National Parks and Wildlife Service officers have found a dead night parrot in the state’s far west, confirming the survival of Australia’s rarest bird.

In a discovery of international significance, the parrot was found in November in the Diamantina Lakes region after it flew into a barbed-wire fence. The Government has kept the find secret to avoid birdwatchers searching for night parrots while it does a survey to find more.

A road-killed night parrot found in 1990 near Boulia, in northwest Queensland, by Australian Museum scientists was the first confirmed record of the species since 1912.

Now the Night Parrot, a nocturnal species, is a rather rare bird. In fact, it has only been reliably sighted a handful of times in the last century. It is arguably Australia’s rarest bird – no – make that THE rarest Australian bird.

The Night Parrot Pezoporus occidentalis is one of Australia’s most intriguing birds and possibly its least known. It lives in remote parts of the continent, comes out at night and runs along the ground like a quail. Since its discovery by Europeans, the Night Parrot has been a subject of debate, particularly in regard to its abundance and natural history. Australian Museum online.

Related articles:

• Night Parrot – Australian Museum online article.

• Not an ex-parrot – article on Snail’s Eye View with several links to relevant sites.

• Bad news for one dead parrot, good news for species – this link is to the original article in The Australian newspaper.