Blue Bonnet parrots
Blue Bonnet Parrot
Sydney Trip June 2011
Yesterday I wrote about having a short stopover at the Malleefowl Rest Area on the road from Balranald to Mildura. We stopped to have a cuppa and afternoon tea in a patch of mallee scrub just off the highway.
While we were enjoying our break several Blue Bonnet parrots flew into a tree nearby and I was able to get some good photos of this colourful bird. At about 30cm in size this is one of our smaller parrots. While it is widespread in the mallee areas of Victoria, NSW and South Australia, it is generally not common anywhere. A small isolated population can also be found in SE Western Australia.
While I said that it is widespread in mallee habitats, it can also be found in several other habitats, including saltbush areas, grasslands, farmlands, mulga and acacias. I have yet to record this species on our home block but I have seen it within about 30 kilometres from our place.
Blue Bonnet Parrot
Blue Bonnet Parrot
Blue Bonnet Parrot
Great Shots, Trevor. I’ve generally found the too shy to get close enough for any decent pics. Well done!
Thanks John. This is the best I’ve got them to pose for me. They just fly in and settled down for about a minute or two. Generally they are just a blur as they fly across the road in front of the car.
Great post. I’ve never seen any blue bonnet parrots, in fact I don’t think I’ve heard of them before.
They tend to be a bird of the drier, rural parts of Australia. Some years ago they were very common cage pets, but only specialist aviculturalists keep them these days.