Birdwatchers ‘elated’ after snapping photo of the endangered species in state’s arid interior in discovery that could significantly impact on mining developments

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

A night parrot has been photographed in Western Australia, adding another twist to the mysterious history of the species that was presumed extinct until it was rediscovered in Queensland four years ago.

It is the first verified sighting of the bird in WA for almost 100 years and follows a history of unverified sightings, disbelieved reports and futile ecological surveys that rivals the hunt for the (presumably still) extinct Thylacine in Tasmania.

The discovery was made by a group of four friends from Broome who have dedicated the better part of seven years to locating the bird, examining detailed maps, trekking into likely habitats, and spending evenings in the state’s arid interior listening for unusual bird calls.

Night parrot population discovered in Queensland national park Read more

This month, two days into a trip to an undisclosed location near a salt lake somewhere in inland WA, they heard “some really interesting calls”.

“The calls to us were unfamiliar,” one of the group, Bruce Greatwich, told Guardian Australia. “We are quite experienced in these habitats so to hear something new was quite exciting.”

The calls were different to those recorded in the Queensland night parrot population, described by researchers in 2005 as “a ‘ding-ding’ call similar to that of a bell miner” followed by “a short frog-like ‘grieet’,” but were enough to indicate the bird might be present.

The next morning a night parrot darted out in front of one of the group, George Swann, while he was walking through spinifex looking for entirely different birds.

It was green and yellow with black barred feathers. The common description is of a big, dumpy budgerigar, about the same size as a rainbow lorikeet.

Swann, described by Greatwich as an “old-school birder”, called the others over.

“We were able to go down and re-find it and we had our cameras at the ready to get a photo,” Greatwich said.

Ordinarily, he added, they would never disturb a nocturnal bird in the daytime, “but in this instance we knew we had to get a photo”.

“We were elated, as excited as you could be,” he said. “To have something happen that we have worked towards for a long time and lots of people have tried to achieve … we were clearly very, very excited.”

Credit for the discovery is being shared between Swann, Greatwich, Adrian Boyle and Nigel Jackett.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Adrian Boyle, Nigel Jackett, George Swann and Bruce Greatwich had been searching for the night parrot in Western Australia for around seven years.

Boyle and Swann are expert consultants to Monash University organisation Research Ecology and Jackett is a warden at the Broome Bird Observatory. All four have experience working in the science and ecology fields but undertook the hunt for the parrot as a passion project, working the trip in around annual leave and family commitments.

Australian night parrot legend lives on but bird remains as elusive as ever Read more

Greatwich rattles off acknowledgements like an Academy Award winner, thanking their families for indulging the obsession, fellow WA birdwatchers Neil Hamilton, Tegan Douglas and Aneta Creighton, and ornithologist John Young, who discovered the night parrot population in western Queensland.

The known range of the parrot in Queensland, more than 2,000km away from WA, was expanded last year to include Diamantina national park in the states’s central west.

“It has been many years in the making,” Greatwich said. “It’s very humbling.”

The discovery could have a significant impact on mining development in parts of WA once presumed to be night parrot habitat.

“This is irrefutable evidence,” Rohan Clarke, head of Research Ecology, said. “We know that night parrots do occur in Western Australia now. Mining companies, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Parks and Water … they will have to place a lot more import into reported sightings now or in the future when they are making an assessment around potential developments or habitat destruction in the area.”

The night parrot group won’t say where they saw the bird, lest they be targeted by poachers, simply giving a broad description of “dry inland areas” that covers about a third of the state.

The last recorded sightings of the parrot in WA was in the Pilbara in 1912, when the only known specimen for more than 100 years was collected.

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There was also a possible night parrot nest discovered in the Pilbara in 1971, and in 2005 Fortescue Metals Group was required to consider a night parrot management plan for its Pilbara Iron Ore Hub, a large mine located halfway between Pannawonica and Tom Price.

Clarke said the evidence from Queensland, used by the WA parrot watchers to locate the bird, was that it nested in unburned spinifex, often alongside some kind of shelter, such as a salt lake, gypsum plain or rocky outcrop.

That means there could be patches of viable night parrots habitat anywhere from inland WA across the southern Northern Territory and northern South Australia to Queensland and north-west New South Wales. It also suggests parrots are likely to be glued to a tiny pocket of habitat and are extremely vulnerable to localised habitat destruction, Clarke said.

“It wouldn’t take much if there was a development in that area to have a significant impact,” he said.</s>A group of four birdwatchers from Broome has photographed Australia's most mysterious bird, the night parrot, in Western Australia.

The sighting is all that more remarkable when you consider that the night parrot was thought to be extinct until three years ago, and that the photograph was taken in a patch of spinifex 2,000 kilometres from where the bird was first rediscovered in Western Queensland.

While the group described the parrot as a "fat budgerigar", the sighting was the equivalent of winning the bird watching lotto.

"I grew up knowing that the bird was extinct and didn't expect to ever see one in my life," says Adrian Boyle from Broome, part of the group that found the bird.

"I just knew it was a fairly small green and yellow parrot that used to live in deserts in spinifex countries that was sort of the unseeable, that it was the holy grail if you get to see one."

To find the bird, the team travelled to a habitat they identified by poring over detailed aerial maps, and camped out, listening for the calls of the largely nocturnal parrot.

"The night before, we actually heard the birds, which sounded very unusual to us actually. We couldn't sleep, we were just pondering the question: 'what was making this noise?'" says Nigel Jackett, a warden at the Broome Bird Observatory.

"There were quite a few of them, there was at least five or six of these things calling around us, so we didn't know what they were, but we saw the habitat was beautiful and thought that they could be night parrots."

In that moment, one of the members of the group, Bruce Greatwich, managed to take a photo of the south end of the northbound bird. It was definitely a night parrot.

The men's discovery is the first confirmed sighting of a night parrot in Western Australia for nearly a century. There have been other rumours of sightings throughout the 2000s, but no evidence accompanied them.

The sighting increases the known range of animals by thousands of kilometres, from the site in Western Queensland all the way across the Northern Territory to patch of rocky spinifex in Western Australia, the exact location of which is not being disclosed.

The birds are so difficult to spot, even in their known Queensland habitat, that even the chair of the Night Parrot Recovery Team, Allan Burbidge, hasn't even seen one.

"Not for lack of trying too," says Dr Burbidge, also a principal research scientist with the WA Department of Parks and Wildlife. "It's a species that is really hard to detect.

While it is unlikely that the bird consistently appears across the whole arid interior, this find gives scientists and birdwatchers hope that pockets of population live in areas relatively undisturbed by development, other human-caused habitat degradation or feral animals.

"Having a photograph now, being absolutely certain [about the birds' presence], hopefully our regulators will be able to use that," says Dr Burbidge.

"So if anyone's sceptical about they can say: 'We have definite evidence that they're in Western Australia and we really do need to survey adequately for them where there are development proposals.'"</s>An officer just received a walk-up complaint about a parrot. A citizen found a "lost" parrot and wants to help it. An animal control officer is going to the place where the parrot is located, no word on where that is, to get the parrot and try and find an appropriate rescue facility for it. "It's as big as a pigeon," says the officer.

UPDATE 12:30 p.m.: The officer who handled the walk-up complaint says the bird has been confirmed to be a cockatiel, not a parrot, and it's been turned over to animal control.</s>Habitat of endangered night parrot placed under exclusion zone by Queensland Government

A rare Queensland parrot once thought extinct will be protected under new laws with an exclusion zone to keep bird watchers and poachers away.

The night parrot was considered extinct for more than 75 years but in 2013 it was rediscovered at a site that was kept secret, known as Pullen Pullen nature reserve in central western Queensland.

However, the State Government is concerned the location of the reserve has been compromised.

By enforcing an exclusion zone, heavy penalties can be served on anyone encroaching into the nature reserve without authorisation.

The area will be monitored by the same technology used to police poaching in Africa.

Researcher Steve Murphy said he and his partner Rachel Barr recently captured a chance encounter with a night parrot on camera and the rare bird's response might offer some insight into why it has become endangered.

"Remarkably it just froze, absolutely froze and allowed us to get within a metre or two of it," Dr Murphy said.

"If it's faced with a threat it's likely it just freezes and hopes that it's not detected."

He said they also found a night parrot nesting site.

"It was a really special moment because what it really told us was these birds are out there doing their bit to pull themselves back from the brink of extinction."

But a week later, they discovered the nest had been plundered.

"Over the next six days we watched that nest at night from a long distance using night vision," he said.

"We were able to see those birds come and go and we recorded sound and we gathered a heap of information.

"On the sixth day, we'd organised some tiny little video cameras to be shipped from Brisbane and we went into that nest one evening to install those cameras and that's when we discovered that the eggs had been eaten."

However, Dr Murphy said they had gathered a lot of critical information about the parrot.

"This new information is absolutely vital for looking after these species," he said.

"Without knowing that it's going into the floodplains or flying 40 kilometres at night, we simply can't manage the landscapes it lives in."

Bush Heritage Australia have installed solar-operated satellite cameras to protect the critical habitat.

Environment Minister Steven Miles said an interim conservation order would impose hefty fines for anybody caught on the night parrot reserve.

"We're very concerned that the disclosure of the location of the night parrot will lead to poachers and that's why we've taken this somewhat unprecedented step," he said.

"It's the first time the nature conservation laws have every been used in this way but such is the level of concern amongst our parks rangers, amongst the scientists that are working on this project, that we've taken this step.

"For an animal as rare as the night parrot, poaching and disturbance are two of the greatest threats and we're working to keep it secure in the wild.

"The Queensland Government is working with Bush Heritage Australia and a scientific committee to conserve this bird and its habitat, and all agree that an interim conservation order (ICO) is needed.

"The ICO means people without authority going onto the land would risk a $353,400 fine or two years' imprisonment."</s>This edition of Roy's Folks is about a local man who has a parrot he takes with him everywhere he goes.

The parrot can fly but won’t leave him.

Russ Kraus has had Smokie for 14 years.

With the exception of grocery stores and restaurants (parrots aren’t allowed by law), Smokie rides around on Russ’ shoulder and is always ready to do a few tricks for a reward.</s>Humans appear to be in good company: the kea parrot of New Zealand has become the first non-mammal to show signs of contagious “laughter.”

Kea parrots aren’t quite cracking each other up in mid-flight. More realistically, they could be described as showing signs of emotionally contagious vocalization. The playful parrot has a particular “play call” that, when heard by other kea parrots, prompts them to begin playing with each other, according to a study published Monday in the journal Current Biology.

The researchers suspect the parrot’s play call is a “positive emotional contagion” similar to what researchers have long observed in humans: for instance, glee inspires glee in preschool children and laughter inspires laughter among humans of all ages. (In humans, laughter has been associated with high levels of gamma waves and appears to engage the entire brain.)

They say the kea parrot is the first non-mammal known to exhibit this type of behavior.

The researchers conducted a test: after analyzing the kea parrot’s full vocal repertoire, they played a recording of the so-called “play call” for a group of kea parrots.

When the birds heard the calls, it led them to play more and play longer in comparison to other bird calls, which were used as controls. This held true for both juveniles and adults of the species.

“The fact that at least some of these birds started playing spontaneously when no other birds had been playing suggests that, similar to human laughter, it had an emotional effect on the birds that heard it, putting them in a playful state,” researcher Raoul Schwing of the Messerli Research Institute in Austria said in a statement.

The experiment supported researchers’ theory that play vocalizations “can act as a positive emotional contagion,” researchers wrote.

Other animals, like chimpanzees and rats, have also shown signs of emotionally contagious vocalization.</s>This week, I learned that Sirocco – media superstar, comedy legend and one of the world’s rarest parrots - has gone missing. The young male kākāpō, who lives wild on a remote New Zealand island, evaded a recent search by scientists who wanted to capture him for a routine health check. Today is Sirocco’s 20th birthday – or “hatchday” to be precise – but no one can say for certain whether he is alive or dead. Is he an ex-parrot or is he just resting? Is he out there pining or has he passed on?

Despite this being the biggest parrot story since Snowball the cockatoo danced to the Backstreet Boys, Sirocco’s disappearance seems to have ruffled few feathers. The media has been slow to pick up on his disappearance, and the bureau responsible for policing the world’s parrots – Interpolly – has yet to file a “missing parrot report”. But why should we care that a big, green, dumpy parrot has gone Awol? Allow me to explain.

First and foremost, Sirocco is one of the rarest, most unusual parrots on the planet. Once so common they could be shaken from the boughs of New Zealand’s trees like apples, kākāpōs took a hammering after human settlers haphazardly introduced predatory non-native species such as stoats and rats. Large, flightless and tasty, kākāpōs were easy pickings. At their lowest ebb, in 1995, there were just 51 left alive. Now, thanks to an intensive recovery programme, there are 154. Sirocco is one of them.

Secondly, Sirocco is a comedy genius. The frisky fellow rocketed to fame when he tried to mate with the zoologist Mark Carwardine in a 2009 BBC wildlife documentary, prompting co-host Stephen Fry to comment, “You are being shagged by a rare parrot. When you have the chick, I want you to call it Stephen.” It was post-watershed TV gold: a moment of innocent parrot porn that has since titillated more than 7 million viewers on YouTube (beat that, Snowball).

Thirdly, Sirocco is a Kiwi national treasure (impressive since he’s not an actual Kiwi) whose life story bears all the hallmarks of a genuine rock’n’roll star.

There were the difficult formative years, when chick-hood illness saw him prised from the nest to be reared by strangers. A bold move that undoubtedly saved his life, it was the start of an unnatural addiction that continues to blight his life: Sirocco became hooked on humans.

As an adolescent on the remote Codfish Island, he eschewed female kākāpōs, preferring instead to serenade the researchers that stayed there with his booming, bass-heavy love song … night after night after night. When it became clear he would never father chicks of his own, conservationists dreamed up another way for him to help his species. Sirocco became New Zealand’s official “spokesbird for conservation”. Since then he’s visited the New Zealand parliament, and now alternates jet-setting around to meet his human fans, with periods of wild respite.

The good news is, I am certain that Sirocco is still alive. I know this because he’s still posting regular updates to his 13,600 followers on Twitter (@spokesbird) … which is ironic given that he can “boom”, “skraaark”, “ching” and make all manner of weird noises, but he can’t tweet. On Facebook, fans have speculated that he is having a midlife crisis – unlikely, as kākāpōs can live well past 70, making Sirocco a whippersnapper – or that he has gone to steal a birthday kiss from Mark Carwardine. The truth, however, may be more mundane. This is not a poly-gon: rather a polly-in-hiding.

When I spoke to Andrew Digby, science adviser for the Kākāpō Recovery Programme, he told me that Sirocco is probably alive and well on the same predator-free island where they left him, but has inadvertently “gone dark” because his radio transmitter has failed. All kākāpōs are fitted with them, but 5% of the electronic devices go on the blink each year. They hope to track him down later this year.

For me, it’s entirely in keeping with Sirocco’s hectic, superstar lifestyle that he should choose to take a break from the limelight. My prediction is that he’s taking some time out to recharge his creative juices before making a spectacular comeback next breeding season. In the meantime: happy birthday, Sirocco.</s>Selling off properties at the right time rather than holding on to them is one of the trademarks of a wise investor. While it’s crucial to do this, disposing one’s property at a good price isn’t a walk in the park. With competition on the rise, property owners often come up with innovative to stand out from the clutter.

ALSO CHECK|WATCH: This viral video of an AirAsia flight attendant dancing to Britney Spears’ ‘Toxic’ is so good that even the CEO couldn’t stop himself from sharing it

One such video of a house on sale is going viral. Not because the place is marvellous, but because it’s a parrot who is selling the house. To put things into perspective, a man dressed up as a parrot is seen promoting different spaces of the mansion in Bolton in the United Kingdom. Donning the costume, the man poses in various areas like the living room, the shower cabin, and the barbecue spot in the backyard.

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The night parrot is confirmed sighted (and photographed) in Western Australia for first time in nearly 100 years.