The Australian
Greg Roberts February 16, 2007
A rare night parrot was flying between its feeding grounds and a waterhole in far western Queensland when it struck a barbed wire fence and was killed. National Parks and Wildlife Service officers discovered the headless bird in November, confirming the survival of Australia’s rarest bird. It was only the second time in almost 100 years that a night parrot had been recorded. Parks service central regional director Keith Twyford said yesterday the bird was found near a waterhole in a sparsely vegetated area in the Diamantina National Park. Mr Twyford said it appeared to have been flying from nearby spinifex-covered sand dunes. The locality was about 200km south of where a road-killed night parrot was found near Boulia in 1990, the first confirmed record since 1912. The sprawling 500,000ha national park is the home of the bilby, the kowari, the yellow chat and other endangered wildlife.
`For the bird-loving community, this is the equivalent of finding the tomb of King Tutankhamen,” he said. “The great thing is that it shows that the birds are still surviving out there.” Adelaide bush safari operator Rex Ellis said yesterday that he was leading a camel safari in 1979 when four night parrots were flushed from a shrub-covered plain near Lake Perigundi, in northeast South Australia. Mr Ellis said six observers, including the then South Australian Museum birds curator, the late Shane Parker, saw the parrots.
The night parrot is Australia’s only nocturnal parrot. It feeds and nests on the ground and once widely inhabited the outback. Its population crashed in the 19th century for reasons that remain obscure.
