Wild parrots

Grumpy wall of fame

2008-08-06T19:08:00.008+08:00

This dunny block, in Beaconsfield, Western Australia, once only had the cockatoos.

Not that I deserve it after such a long blogging hiatus, but now the wall also portrays me.

(It's not really me).

You in my world now, Jane Davenport

2008-08-06T18:59:00.001+08:00

Birdbrains

2008-03-14T20:47:00.008+09:00

Though they perch far apart on the avian family tree, different groups of birds that can learn songs use similar brain structures to pitch their tunes.

In all three groups of birds that are able to learn a tune -- parrots, songbirds and hummingbirds -- the brain structures for singing and learning to sing are embedded in areas that control movement, neurobiologists at Duke University in North Carolina this week said in a release.

The findings may also help solve the riddle of why humans (especially Italians) talk with our hands and voice, but chimps (except in the Planet of the Apes) can talk only with their hands.

"In its most specialised way, spoken language is the ability to control the learned movements of our larynx," neorobiologist Erich Jarvis said. "It's possible that human language pathways have also evolved in ways similar to these birds.

"Perhaps the evolution of vocal learning brain areas for birds and humans exploited a universal motor system that predates the split from the common ancestor of birds and mammals."

Professor Jarvis and his colleagues examined bird species with vocal learning skills and some without: garden warblers, zebra finches, budgerigars (an exceedingly cute species of parrot), Anna's hummingbirds and ring doves. The coneheads observed and manipulated bird behavior, then recorded which genes were active in the birds' brains when the birds moved and sang in certain ways.

While all birds vocalize, for most of them these sounds are genetically hardwired. Only parrots, songbirds and hummingbirds have the ability to learn songs. This type of vocal learning is similar to the way humans learn to speak, Professor Jarvis said.

Beakonsfield

2008-03-07T12:08:00.009+09:00

This is about as close as I've been to a parrot in a few weeks.

I did, however, see two particularly cute rainbow lorikeets canoodling in a date palm, next to Novak's pub, in Northbridge, this morning. They were very chipper, having been deloused by a generous storm cloud.

Several passers by stopped to spy the colourful couple. So parrot appreciation could be on the up in Perth. Let's hope so.

Anyway, back to the matter at hand. The matter in hand is a mic in a mic stand and Definition of Sound as the main brand.

No, hang on, back to the real matter at hand. The pic' above.

Yes, for the past few weeks a veritable cornucopia of parrots on South Street, Beaconsfield, has been stopping off at Chez Un tournesol for breakfast.

I took this snap Monday morning, and the silly things flew up onto a power line when I got too close.

They are wild, after all.

Wild, but mild.

Keitha Willison! He'sa my husband!!

2008-02-26T20:59:00.004+09:00

Here's a little somethin' that was emailed to me at work yesterday:

A woman went to a pet shop and spotted a big, beautiful parrot.

There was a sign on the cage that said $15.

"Why so little," she asked the pet store owner.

The owner looked at the woman and admitted: "Look, I should tell you first that this bird used to live in a house of ill-repute and sometimes it says some pretty vulgar stuff."

The woman thought about this, but decided she had to have the parrot anyway.

She took it home, hung its cage up in her living room, and waited for it to say something.

The bird looked around the room, then at her, and said: "New house, new madam."

The woman was shocked at the implication, but then thought: "That's really not so bad."

When her twin teenage daughters returned from school, the parrot rolled its beady eyes and said: "New house, new madam, new girls."

The girls and their mother were somewhat offended, but started to laugh about the situation, considering where the parrot had been raised.

Moments later, the woman's husband, Keith, came home from work.

The bird eyeballed him and said: "Hi, Keith!"

Crockerytoo

2008-02-25T19:10:00.007+09:00

Snapped today in the courtyard of a magnificent art deco house opposite Perth's Hyde Park was this Sulphur-crested cocky.

He seemed to be getting along well with the two resident tortoiseshell cats.

Oh, let's just blame the endangered parrot!

2008-02-23T15:55:00.010+09:00

The critically endangered Orange Bellied parrot (pictured) is an "environmental obstacle" to a desalination plant planned for the parrot's habitat in Victoria, Massie Santos Ballon yesterday proclaimed on a so-called "Cleantech" website.

There's less than 200 orange belliers left in the wild, though a breeding and release program is showing promise. Habitat disruption is the main reason for the parrot's demise.

"The desalination plant also threatens other colorfully named species such as the glossy grass skink, the southern brown bandicoot and the growling grass frog, but the bird is really the center of all the attention," Ballon trivialises.

Ballon is a "columnist" from Manila, the Blade Runner-style capital of the Philippines, where sewer rats and junkyard dogs pass for biodiversity.

"The question is, will [the Orange Bellied parrot] cost Aussies their drinking water?" Ballon goes on to patronise.

As this blog sees it, the real question is: "Why should an environmentally-dubious desalination plant fly in the face of the well-established precautionary principle, to the detriment of several threatened species, so Aussies can wind up living in a horrorshow cesspit like the city Ballon calls home?"

Legal eagles for prized parrots

2008-02-09T16:16:00.000+09:00

THE US secretary of the interior has been called on to protect, both at home and abroad, tropical parrots most prized by unscrupulous pet traders.

"Listing these birds under the US Endangered Species Act," director of Denver University's environmental law clinic Jay Tutchton said in a January 21 release, "will head off poachers and collectors, increase funding and attention for research and habitat protection, and draw scrutiny to projects proposed by US government and lending agencies worldwide."

Named in a petition drafted by the university's students are:
• Hyacinth, Blue-throated, Blue-headed, Green, Scarlet and Military macaws;
• Grey-cheeked parakeets; and
• Yellow-billed, Red-crowned, Thick-billed, and Crimson shining parrots.

Also nominated were Philippine, White, and Yellow-crested cockatoos (which resemble the Sulphur-crested ones we get in Australia).

Lee Hall, who's legal eagle for fur and feather activists Friends of Animals, was also concerned.

"The pet trade threatens the continued survival, as well as the freedom, of these birds – beings who must also cope on habitat desired by ranchers and energy developers," Hall said. "The US market for these birds must be closed."

Notwithstanding the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, and similarly-minded US law, traders can obtain many of these birds with permits, the release warned. Trappers may set snares on perches, use ladders to raid nests, set the bases of trees afire to flush birds out, and shoot adult birds in the wing to allow capture.

Chicks are especially prized, the release continued. Collectors will even cut down trees to get to them – killing 60 per cent of the chicks as the trees fall, and depriving birds of future nesting sites. Most surviving birds die in transit between traders.

Said Kay Bond, the attorney supervising the law students drafting and preparing to litigate the petition: "We expect a positive initial finding on our petition within 90 days, and we hope the secretary will act before one or more of these communities of birds go [sic] extinct due to the pet trade."

Where the parrots live:
• Yellow-billed parrots in the wet limestone forests of Jamaica.
• Red-crowned parrots along the northeast Mexican coasts, a population in Veracruz having disappeared.
• Thick-billed parrots once lived in the southwestern US but are now seen only in Mexico.
• Military macaws in fragmented canyon and forest habitat from Mexico to Peru, having disappeared from Argentina.
• Blue-throated macaws in Bolivian palm groves
• Grey-cheeked parakeets in coastal areas along the border between Ecuador and Peru
• Hyacinth macaws (not to be confused with Jim Morrison's Hyacinth House) on the edges of Brazilian palm forests
• Blue-headed macaws in parts of Brazil, Peru, and Bolivia.
• Scarlet Macaws in pockets throughout Central and South America; only about every two years do they lay two to four eggs.
• Great green macaws, once widespread throughout Central and South America, are now only found in pockets of Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama. Less than 2500 free-living Great Green macaws are left. In Costa Rica, only 25-35 pairs remain. In Ecuador, they number less than 100 individuals. They've been seen bagged for sale in Nicaraguan markets.
• Crimson shining parrots in forests and agricultural lands, as well as around human habitation on the islands of Fiji.
• Yellow-crested and White cockatoos live in Indonesia, where they are suffering the effects of the pet trade and habitat destruction.
• Philippine cockatoos are currently found on only a handful of islands within their historic range.

Early Autumn, courtesy Corella

2008-02-08T22:05:00.001+09:00

Proving that parrots love to go to town, this plane tree, on Perth's Esplanade, was jam-packed with creaking Western Corellas on Monday.

They're a bit hard to spot, so here's a zoom.

Harder to miss is their verdant trail of destruction.

He's baaaack!

2008-02-03T21:27:00.001+09:00

Same tree, on South Street, a week or so since I snapped the last lorrie, another was back to lap up the crimson nectar.

Same lori? Who knows?

I thought the gum tree was worth another airing though. Western Australia's gums, and wildflowers for that matter, are a wonder to behold.

Yep, it's a spectacular bloom that makes a rainbow lorrie fade into the background.

Poor lorrie.

Indian ringneck alert

2008-01-15T18:04:00.000+09:00

This pestilent, introduced, Indian Ringneck has been caught in Fremantle.

Western Australia's agriculture and food department reminded Sandgropers not to allow birds to leave aviaries after the friendly former pet was found by a nursery man at Dawson's garden world in the light industrial area of O'Connor.

Department biosecurity officer Brett Scourse (pictured) said Dawson's staff reported the suspicious-looking bird, and helped by feeding it to keep it in the area until department staff could capture it.

The feathered subcontinental is rumoured to be a former shouldertop associate of Saddam Hussein.

"This is another reminder that Indian ringnecks are at great risk of establishing feral populations in Western Australia, if they are released or escape from aviaries," Mr Scourse said. "Escaped birds are regularly found in the wild, with reports over the past two years of birds in Belmont, Lake Monger, Hyde Park, Yangebup, Ocean Reef, St James, Stoneville, Mt Nasura, Morley, Calista, York, Cottesloe, Forrestdale and Mandurah.

"Indian Ringnecks are declared pests in Western Australia and all birds found in the wild are immediately removed," the biosecurer added. "Their pest status requires that they are kept under secure conditions indicated by a permit."

Mr Scourse said Indian ringnecks posed a significant threat to Western Australian agriculture and horticulture, with potential to damage cereal and oilseed crops, as well as stored grain [unlike our heavenly native parrots:-)].

"There are large numbers of the birds kept as pets and owners need to be vigilant and ensure they do not escape," he said. "They are required to be kept in a secure double-doored aviary at all times."

"It is also important for the public to remain vigilant and report any unusual sightings of birds in their area as soon as possible. "

The Indian ringneck is a long-tailed, grass-green parrot with a red beak, slightly smaller than a native 28 parrot. Male birds have a narrow black and pink ring around the neck, while females and immature birds sometimes have emerald rings.

Sometimes the birds may be blue, yellow and white in colour, from being bred in captivity.

Sightings of the Indian ringneck should be reported to the department on freecall 1800 084 881.

Galahs and the bees

2008-01-14T10:00:00.000+09:00

There's a big old galah nest in this spotted gum (Eucalyptus maculata), outside the TAFE college in Oxford Street, Leederville.

Only problem is, it's a good home for bees too.

At the moment, though, galahs seem to be winning over bees, with a flock of about six of the so-called pink and greys hanging around the gumtree and nearby power poles on Saturday morning just passed.

Where's Lori?

2008-01-13T11:07:00.000+09:00

The rainbow lorikeets are lovin' it around Fremantle and Perth at present.

Not only are the spotted gums (imported like the lories, and me, from Australia's east coast) in beige bloom, but some of our local gums like the one pictured are out as well.

... meaning the likes of this White Gum Valley lori, snapped on South Street on Friday morning, gets a good feed - and some camouflage to boot.

Light on his feet

2008-01-12T12:59:00.000+09:00

Snapped on South Street, in Beaconsfield, on Thursday this winged white-gut looked somewhat bemused, if not downright baffled.

"Hang on a pine cone-pickin' minute, haven't I seen you somewhere before?"

"Aren't you that phantom parrot blogger?"

"Well, cop a squiz at this, Mr Happy Snapper!"

"Go on, take a picture, it lasts longer!!"

"I'm outta here. Catcha later, paparazzo!!!"

Civil disobedience

2007-12-15T08:27:00.001+09:00

Click on photo for best view of chicken-licken, stage left.

(snapped in Caesar Street, Beaconsfield, beside Bruce Lee Oval)

Mr Hyde

2007-12-02T12:07:00.000+09:00

This ravenous creature has been immortalised in textile beside the Hyde Park lake, in London, Guv.

I stand corrected, but it looks suspiciously like a Scaly-breasted lorikeet (Trichoglossus chlorolepidotus) to me, which is a first for this blog.

Doubi, doubi, doubi, doo.

2007-12-01T14:54:00.001+09:00

This cranky-looking thing is painted on the side of a bridge in Lyon, France.

... and Hardy

2007-11-30T18:14:00.000+09:00

Here's the underside of the previous parrot's colleague.

A cheap shot, I know.

But if he can rest on his laurels, then so can I.

A real, live parrot!!

2007-11-29T19:05:00.000+09:00

Regular perusers of parrots on this blog may have recognised the dearth of living parrots here of late.

That's because the flighty little blighters are pretty hard to snap and, frankly, I'm not that dedicated.

Anyway, here's a rainbow lorikeet for you. It was demolishing somebody's fig tree on Lefroy Road in South Fremantle today.

For the record, galahs, black cockies and corellas have also been pretty prolific of late. I have no snaps of these, but thought you might be interested.

Toucan play at that.

2007-11-06T22:17:00.000+09:00

Fans of real, live parrots (as opposed to stuffed or drawn-up ones) can now rest easy, as the fellow above is the last specimen collected from my extensive European holiday.

And what better way to end it all with a pic' of Europe's favourite parrot, the macaw.

The toucan below looks like its bracing for an onslaught of Macaw droppings.

Masked parrot of TISM

2007-11-05T22:37:00.000+09:00

To me, he'll only ever go by the name "Zorro".

Now, hang on a cotton-pickin' minute!

2007-11-04T22:11:00.000+09:00

I do hope this cute Blue-crowned hanging parrot was so named because it likes hanging around the Malay Peninsula - and not because it was hanged by some overzealous Malaysian official who didn't like what it was trying to smuggle into the country.

Mealy mouth

2007-11-04T08:07:00.000+09:00

This inoffensive-looking fella must have one of the most unflattering names in all of parrothood.

It's most undeserved, I'm sure.

Palm Saturday

2007-11-03T07:59:00.001+09:00

Until my next holiday to the north of Western Australia, or to the Northern Territory, where these fine-schnozzered parrots still darken the sky as they fly on by, you'll have to be content with this somewhat bedraggled specimen.

(Again from the Natural History Museum in London)

Sepik flyer

2007-10-31T17:55:00.001+09:00

For those who've been missing my "parrots of the British Natural History Museum" collection, here's an action-packed bitta taxidermy for you.

This fella's from the densely rainforested mountains of Papua New Guinea.

Lord knows how many other species of parrot the botanists are yet to unearth from the tangled jungles up that way.

Honorary parrot

2007-10-30T22:31:00.000+09:00

"You're dethpicable!*"

*photographed in Avignon, the home of Duck a'Lorange

The gift that keeps on giving

2007-10-30T22:12:00.000+09:00

Just when you thought:

France could not possibly offer up another dodgy parrot painting; nor
another macaw; and
that a return to pics of real parrots was just around the corner;

here's another sample of French macaw fetishism, pictured in a shopfront in Avignon.

Gee, I wonder what the first picture painted by the kid who buys the pencils will be??

... meaning the macaw cult of France will live on and on.

And that can't be a bad thing.

Kakapo joy juice

2007-10-30T20:15:00.000+09:00

On a marginally more upbeat note, this ground-dwelling parrot of New Zealand is not yet extinct.

Well, this particular one, housed in London's natural history museum is ever-so-slightly extinct. However, its species lingers on. Barely.

Due to the introduction of beasties like cats, rats, stoats and foxes to the land of the long white cloud, the poor ol' kakapo (as the world's only flightless parrot is known) is now isolated to a couple of monitored islands off the NZ mainland, and is in grave peril.

Other claims to fame for the kakapo (Maori for 'night parrot') is that it's the world's heaviest parrot, it's probably the world's longest lived bird, and there are only about 60 left on the planet.

The remaining parrots have been relocated to predator-free islands, where the birds have been breeding!

Hang tough, kakapo. Hang tough!

And breed, breed like there's no tomorrow!

Nothing could be finer than to spot a Carolina some fine morning.

2007-10-28T13:36:00.001+09:00

The Carolina parakeet was the only parrot native to the east of North America.

Like the dodo, the poor parakeet, pictured on its permanent perch in London's Natural History Museum, is now extinct.

Click on the pic' to find out why.

Dodocagone

2007-10-28T09:39:00.000+09:00

Okay, so this stuffed dodo from London's Natural History Museum is no parrot.

And he's no oil painting either.

But he does go to show what could happen to some of our poor parrots if we do not look after them, and their habitats.

That's right. They'd be stuffed.

Extinct.

And forced to live in England.

Poor dodo.

Parroting Peter Sellers

2007-10-27T09:38:00.000+08:00

I think it was a macaw I saw in Peter Sellers' "The Party".

This happy blue thing in Lyon doesn't look much like a macaw though.

Put The Parrot out to pasture

2007-10-26T16:51:00.001+08:00

It's not often that I criticise a parrot.

C'mon, you know I love 'em.

"And what's not to love??" I hear you say.

Well, Alan Jones, AKA "The Parrot", that's what.

In the wake of the Wallabies' dismal performance at the recent rugby world cup in France (where and when the stunning parrot pictures you've been enjoying below were taken), some Nigel from Queensland has suggested the Parrot take over as coach of Australia's national rugby team.

As right-wing as they come, populist shock jock Jones last coached the Wallabies over 20 years ago. And yes, he was successful.

But the bloke's a plonker, and so is his Queensland cheer leader:

"Let's look outside the square, let's do something different, let's shake it up,'' Lewis [the Queenslander, of Jones] told Sydney's Daily Telegraph. "You need someone who comes in from outside the current philosophy of coaching which in my view is killing the game."

Anyone who implores us to "think outside the [cliched] square" is clearly incapable of doing so themselves.

As for The Parrot, did I mention he's a plonker?

Macaw and order

2007-10-26T15:04:00.000+08:00

In France, the macaw is the law.

Budgie smuggler

2007-10-25T23:20:00.000+08:00

Also in the Musee d'Orsey was this exquisite Art Moderne rendering of a pair of budgies.

As the sign behind says, the two lime budgerigars are inseparable.

Made me want to pick the thing up, sneak out the front door, and become a budgie smuggler ;-)

Up close and ear-shriekingly personal

2007-10-21T13:50:00.000+08:00

Here's a close-up of the surreal squawker mentioned below.

Surreally good parrot.

2007-10-21T13:42:00.000+08:00

Proving that Surrealism does not have to be all about lobster-phones and graable, faable, definitaable, Spanish master Joan Miro throws in a touch of parrot (bottom off-centre).

The painting is called Collage, it was painted in 1929, and it's in the Musee d'Orsey.

Birds of a feather

2007-10-20T07:53:00.000+08:00

Even back in 1785, when Marie-Antionette and her hubby ruled the roost at Versailles, a blue macaw was never too far away*.

I wonder if it spoke French?

* Photo by Hazel Blackberry

Karaoke parrot

2007-10-19T13:38:00.000+08:00

As I said, the French love a parrot.

This little fella was snapped in Versailles, just down the road from the palace.

He was advertising Chez Cesar's extensive range of parrot burgers.

Cockatoo cocktail

2007-10-18T18:02:00.000+08:00

Along the Cote d'Azur, in Nice to be precise, suave cocktail slurpers would not be caught dead without their parrot-bedecked cocktail cooler.

Kind of Blue

2007-10-14T20:12:00.000+08:00

This introspective character was also created by Monseiur de Lajaue, on the same colourful paravent.

Parrot vent

2007-10-14T19:38:00.001+08:00

This large-schnozzered creature was found perched on an ornate 18th century privacy screen that was part of the eclectic collection at the Petit Palace gallery in Paris.

A real looker, aint he?

Next time you're ambling by the Petit Palace, I suggest you drop in, sidle up to the nearest attendant and – in your finest French – ask to be pointed in the direction of Paravent, crafted in 1735 by parrot lover Jaques de LaJaue.

Oh, and tell 'em Grumpy sent ya.

I'm back, I'm back, you know it, shamone.

2007-10-14T19:05:00.000+08:00

Well, the rugby in France was tres merde, with the Aussies putting in an all-round pitiful effort, and bloody England still in the hunt for all-round glory.

Still, for five weeks France turned on a wonderful flurry of sights, sounds and ups and downs. London, where wifey and I spent seven nights, was passable enough I suppose.

Unfortunately, neither in France nor in London did we behold even one parrot to encolour our sojourn, unless you count that poor macaw which was part of an "art" installation at the Tate Modern in London. Needless to say, I Geoffrey Boycotted that one.

Fortunately, the French have a fetish for parrots, loving nothing more than to paint them on billboards, the sides of trucks, their persons – the list is endless!

So, for the next few days I'll be treating you to a selection of the finest parrot art you're ever likely to see. It should be a wild ride.

Parrot's eye view

2007-09-02T07:32:00.001+08:00

I'm going on hols for a while to a land far, far away.

Yes, I believe they have parrots in this magical place. So there'll be plenty of snaps of exotic parrots on my return.

The country I'm visiting is not specifically known for its parrots, more for its cockerels. Like this one-eyed supporter in the picture, I'll be flying the green and gold of Australia at the Rugby World Cup, which starts later this week.

Can you guess the name of the tres sportif land I'll be visiting, so far, far across the sea?

Oh, what the hell, it's France.

Until my return, au revoir to yar and yar and yar.

The clouds are here, they are not in the sky.

2007-09-02T07:17:00.001+08:00

I love how junior pink and grey's feathers look like clouds.

It's about as close to the clouds as he'll get for a while, because he's still ridiculously shaky in flight.

Got a good set of lungs on him when he's hungy, though.

Flapping the gums

2007-09-01T08:44:00.000+08:00

"Na, just up for a chat is all."

Clipped Wingwood

2007-09-01T08:35:00.001+08:00

"Yeah, I'm talking' to you ... Feelin' lucky, punk?"

Parrot De Niro's squawking, squawking Italian.

2007-09-01T08:30:00.000+08:00

"You talkin' to me? ... You talkin' to me?"

Walking with parrot saurs

2007-09-01T08:24:00.000+08:00

... but, hey, as long as he's having fun, who am I to cast aspersions on his intelligence?

Parrot high on grass

2007-09-01T08:20:00.001+08:00

... this thing, on the other hand, is only marginally brighter ...

Action shot

2007-09-01T08:09:00.001+08:00

This is about as animated as the plump things get when they're grazing.

Hazel and I reckon baby galahs look like vampire bats. And, indeed, they are rather batty. Hence our bastardisation of the Peter Tosh song:

"Vampire!
You really don't know what to do.
You a Vampire!
But how could anyone expect you to?"

Parrot parity?

2007-08-31T17:53:00.001+08:00

As much as I love the whimsically-named pink and grey, I can't work out if it's as cute as the equally imaginatively-named 28.

I'll sit on the fence and let you decide.

Comments are good.

Pink sky in the morning, a farmer's warning

2007-08-31T16:56:00.001+08:00

Stopping off to snap a few 28ers yesterday, I strayed upon this little number, the first baby galah of the parrot season. Grazing happily he was, alongside his equally ravenous mother.

Proving, of course, that the seed never falls far from the tree.

Galahs are more frequently called 'pink and greys' in Western Australia. The poor things were probably so named because a pink and grey mist is all a farmer sees when he shoots 'em with his 22.

It's a poetic, romantic, place, this Western Australia.

Life's great when you're 28, mate.

2007-08-30T23:37:00.000+08:00

This is my favourite 28 shot of the day. By gosh, they love a grass seed.

It's hard to get them to face you when you're snapping them though. A more camera shy parrot there aint.

Tippy-toe! Tippy-toe! Wild parrots put on Kings Park show.

2007-08-30T23:21:00.000+08:00

It's been a while since a Western Ringneck featured on Wild Parrots, so here's a couple in the foreground, snapped by me this arvy in Kings Park.

That's a baby galah in the background, happily grazing away under the negligent eye of his mum, but more on baby galah later.

Back to the ringnecker, which Western Australians know better as a '28', because that's the sound its rolling chirp makes. Either that, or 'tippy toe!', as George Costanza would say.

Anthropocentric but cute

2007-08-25T13:21:00.000+08:00

"Yeah, bring it on!"

Galah event

2007-08-25T13:00:00.001+08:00

It's coming into wildflower season in southern Western Australia. And on this blog, that can only mean one thing.

It's wild parrot season too!

While there's not a wildflower to be seen in this shot, and this iddie snapped this morning is a somewhat docile specimen, his dead tree in Perth's King's Park later in the wild parrot season springs forth with all manner of beaked screechers.

Bring it on!!!

Cattus Cattus

2007-08-11T13:31:00.001+08:00

... opening up an unlikely opportunity for a colourful carnivore.

Sleepy Jackson

2007-08-11T13:28:00.001+08:00

Like me, they're not at their brightest after a feed ...

After the rain comes a ...

2007-08-11T13:11:00.001+08:00

It's been quite a while. So long, indeed, I forgot how to do a post.

But then again, it hasn't exactly been parrot season.

Better weather for ducks, actually.

First day after Perth's elongated wet spell, my backyard bottlebrush bloomed in all its glory this morning, which in turn attracted some more colour of the herbivourous variety.

Corellagram

2007-05-11T18:26:00.000+08:00

This fella's no oil painting, with his blue tongue, curling proboscis and bulging blue eye.

But he does keep the pesky pine cones in Hilton Park, Beaconsfield (WA) under control.

Amazing Amazons

2007-04-28T16:04:00.000+08:00

Check out these feral Red-Crowned Amazons in the verdant back yard of Sharon's suburban California bungalow.

The one musketeer

2007-04-16T21:05:00.000+08:00

This Musk Lorikeet (Glossopsitta concinna) out the back of Dinosaur World had just about had it by the time I took his picture last weekend.

After I snapped him, he slipped his noggin under his wing and went to sleep.

I felt a bit sorry for the poor thing, as there was a lot of tourists filing through, and on the south-west coast of Australia he was a long way from his native east and south-east coast.

(No, he wasn't tied to the stick with wire - the stick was tied with wire to a supporting post).

Talking with dinosaurs

2007-04-11T20:44:00.000+08:00

How's this for a schnozz?

I dunno what kind of parrot we have on parade here, but I suspect it's not Australian.

Possibly one of those Proboscis Parrots from the wilds of Borneo, though I suspect that's not true either.

Any thoughts, anyone?

Parroticus Eclecticus

2007-04-09T19:29:00.000+08:00

Just to prove she harboured no hard feelings against parrotkind, Hazel snapped this pair of Eclectus parrots (Eclectus roratus) not long after she was bitten by Mr Glossy.

Natives of the North Queensland vineforest, the female bird has a lurid red head and (true to her Queensland roots) a maroon fuselage. The male comes in snazzy green.

The two sexes differ so markedly in colour, they were once thought to be separate species - though assumedly not by one another.

Nipping Cousins

2007-04-09T18:51:00.000+08:00

After having a go at her foobada, Mr Redtail decided to gnaw on poor Hazel's hand.

Neither myself (holding camera), nor Ben bloody Cousins (pictured) were of much assistance.

Not wild, but wild at heart

2007-04-09T18:24:00.000+08:00

This cheeky Glossy Black Cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus lathami - native to Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria) was photographed yesterday at Dinosaur World, near Walpole in southern Western Australia.

Although he was not a dinosaur, he almost became extinct when, having had enough of being handled, he chomped into Hazel's right foobada-doobada with his vice-like beak.

That looks like a flake of Haze's foobada-skin on his ample schnoz:-)

Hekyll or Jekyll?

2007-04-06T07:47:00.000+08:00

Perhaps no nation celebrates its parrots in art quite so much as Australia.

Though that's a big "perhaps".

In Perth, for instance, you'll see all manner of cockatoos and cockatiels adorning bus shelters and the sides of butcher shops - even frozen, like this one, in bronze surveying a chess board in Hyde Park.

Blind owl, that was delightful.

2007-04-05T13:45:00.000+08:00

And why on earth shouldn't he?

Parrot please

2007-04-05T13:42:00.000+08:00

This boggle-eyed black-beaker looks pretty pleased with himself.

Incoming

2007-04-04T00:59:00.000+08:00

Quite the wingspan on display, here, though I'm not so sure his fine feathered companions are as impressed with it as I am.

Back in black

2007-04-04T00:45:00.000+08:00

I've been away a while with a broken computer. Thankfully the parrots have been piling up.

These black cockies, snapped earlier this year in Perth's King's Park, were overlooking the pale blue expanse of Matilda Bay.

Tree of birds

2006-11-24T19:10:00.000+08:00

For the past coupla days, this peppermint tree near my home has been chocablock with Western Corellas.

They're in the ascendancy at the moment, and rather cacophonous - in a creaky, croaky, feathery, leathery kinda way.

Upside parrot hide

2006-11-08T20:30:00.000+08:00

It's been a while since I ripped a parrot off from the good people at Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill.

I do so in the spirit of trans-world parrot admiration.

Rupert Macawl

2006-11-05T11:34:00.000+08:00

... nor on the external walls of Northbridge grog halls.

A trip to the moon on Besser brick wings

2006-11-05T11:27:00.000+08:00

Parrots have been a bit thin on the ground, and in the sky, of late - but not on the side of the dunny block at Bruce Lee Oval in Beaconsfield ...

Double you

2006-10-21T20:50:00.000+08:00

... and wheeled them whistling into the warm wheatbelt weather.

Super sonar solar radar

2006-10-21T20:44:00.000+08:00

... which peaked their pelmets ...

Beaks a flappin'

2006-10-21T20:39:00.002+08:00

... until they had a little confab ...

A Cockortwo

2006-10-21T20:26:00.000+08:00

A couple of hundred metres west of Dowerin, these Red Tailed Black Cockatoos were quite interested in me and my telephoto this morning ...

They call me yellow fellow

2006-10-21T19:54:00.000+08:00

Found perched above the footpath, these chirpwhistles gave Hazel and me a spritely welcome to Goomalling this morning.

I believe they're Regent Parrots, of the Westralis race. Not that I saw any real ones.

Wild gravity

2006-09-16T22:02:00.000+08:00

Here is Hazel and my all time favourite parrot - the immortal Woo - being groomed by his mother, Waxy Balls.

This pic' is both sweet and sour. Sweet, because Woo was sweet. Sour because the dark patch on his forehead was the first sign of the beak and feather disease that would eventually kill him.

Poor Woo. He was one of a kind.

Pecking order

2006-09-09T16:29:00.000+08:00

Another blast from a Canberra spring gone by for you to enjoy.

There was a definite pecking order with these sulphur crest cockatoos, though occassionally a rogue cocky would fly in and upset the applecart.

Gang Gang gooly gooly gooly gooly. Watch 'im ...

2006-08-24T21:29:00.000+08:00

Here's the world's most gentle parrot, Canberra's own Gang Gang Cockatoo.

No raucous screeching with this little fella, just a lilting creak that sounds like a cork being drawn from a wine bottle (not my description - from some book called Wild About Canberra).

We only got to see the likes of him down at our home, near Lake Burley Griffin, in the winter time when it was too cold for him in the Brindabella Mountains. Come summer time, he'd migrate back to altitude to escape the heat.

Rainbow nation

2006-08-19T13:00:00.000+08:00

Finally, finally, with the onset of marginally warmer weather, and with the gum trees and bottle brushes in bloom, I've been able to snap this, the Rainbow Lorikeet.

He was sprung in the wilds of Osborne Park, a light industrial area northwest of Perth city.

Lories don't really belong in Western Australia, having established around Perth from aviary escapees that were lured here from their native home 3500 kms away on the golden fringe of the Pacific.

They're considered pests in WA, outmuscling 28s and other peace-loving parrots for scarce tree hollows. But hey, their drunken antics brighten up a damp day when you're sitting in the Subaru outside a bead shop waiting for your wife to make her mind up between pink and puce.

Waxing lyrical

2006-08-10T22:23:00.000+08:00

Known to Hazel and I as Waxy Balls, this ridiculous beast was the mother of Woo and the wife of mighty Behemoth.

The most inquisitive of the myriad parrots that would drop by our Canberra verandah, she would often crane her neck to check out what was going on inside our unit.

And like most sulphur crests, she didn't mind a fang.

Birdbrains

2006-08-09T21:34:00.000+08:00

Our verandah back in Canberra was known as the menagerie, for obvious reasons.

Kea!

2006-08-05T21:29:00.000+08:00

An extensive search of our holiday snaps has uncovered this, the world's only alpine parrot, the cheeky Kea from New Zealand's south island.

Snapped in January 2004 in the mountains near Homer Tunnel, this fellow came to us fresh from picking rubber off some poor sod's roof rack. After charming Hazel and I for a while, he hopped away to fang an apple core somebody had thrown on the side of the road.

Possibly the world's most intelligent parrot, the Kea is still pretty loopy by primate standards.

A right galah

2006-08-05T18:10:00.000+08:00

This pink and grey was sprung in our backyard this evening doing what pink and greys do best - fanging.

The poor halfwit was so intent on fanging that it didn't notice the stealthy approach of Pounce! the cat.

Luckily the clicking of camera shutter disturbed the clicking of citrus seed and a flurry of fur and feather was narrowly averted.

Holding parrot

2006-08-04T15:04:00.000+08:00

This fella dangles from the ceiling of Hazel's and my shed.

He used to guard the weedy Wisteria on our balcony in Canberra from marauding sulphur crests, but now we're in Western Australia he lives more sedately.

If you pull the string under his gut, his wings flap. Seeing as there's not too many sulphur crests around here, and he now lives under a roof, his string only gets pulled every now and then by hand out of love, rather than hourly by beak for torment.

Picture by Hazelblackberry

Nutter

2006-05-01T22:35:00.000+08:00

Parrots on parade

2006-05-01T22:20:00.000+08:00

How's this for a barrel of monkeys?

The Fremantle Boat Show was in full swing across the road in Esplanade Park - the favourite hangout of these fun-loving freeloaders. Making the best of a bad situation, they decided to high-tail it outta there and spend the afternoon fanging casuarina nuts.

(Not that they have fangs).

(Unless you call an unsightly blue tongue a fang).

A parrot by any other name

2006-04-23T22:24:00.000+08:00

In Western Australia, this sweet thing (first featured in the post below) is also known as a King Parrot.

While she looks nothing like the stunning, flourescent-headed King Parrot found in the high country of New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland, she's very special all the same.

First cap

2006-04-23T21:55:00.000+08:00

Even though they can be seen around Perth, it took Hazel and I a 400km drive south to Albany to see our first wild Red-Capped Parrot (Purpureicephalus spurius).

Haze photographed this young female about 5pm yesterday.

We also saw a few Western Rosellas in scrubland and (I think) a pair of Purple-Crowned Lorikeets by Albany Highway yesterday afternoon, but the preposterous creatures flew off before we could snap 'em.

Next time we'll set a trap:-)

Outta here.

2006-04-17T11:35:00.000+08:00

That's probably the beggee fleeing the tree.

Easter parrots

2006-04-17T11:09:00.000+08:00

The younger of these two Long-Billed Black Cockatoos (Calyptorhynchus baundinii) was giving its elder the rounds of the kitchen, begging for food within earshot of my kitchen earlier this morning.

I'm not sure which was the begger and which the beggee.

Interloper

2006-04-09T22:12:00.000+08:00

"Ahem. You're weighing down our fence."

[Wild Red-Tailed Black-Cockatoos (Calyptorhynchus banksii), photographed today just east of Donnybrook, Western Australia, with a Willie Wagtail (Rhipidura leucophrys)]

Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill

2006-04-07T23:45:00.000+08:00

Yes, that's Alcatraz, not Carnac Island, in the far distance. And no, Haze and I have not moved to San Francisco - though I'd like to give it a go some day.

This is merely a plug for a documentary about the guy (Mark Bittner) who took this photo of these reasonably wild red and green parrots.

Haze and I laughed, cried, barfed and sighed at the shenanigans of Mark's adopted flock of feral Fockers. There's something for everyone here.

Five tail feathers.

Grassias

2006-04-07T22:35:00.000+08:00

... except if you're a turf-farmer.

Sprung today in Kings Park, Perth

2006-04-07T22:21:00.000+08:00

From a distance, these Western Ringnecks (Barnardius zonarius) look sinister. But up close, they're pretty damn cute ...

So, farewell to the Norfolk Island pine.

2006-04-01T16:50:00.000+08:00

... or Judy.