Australian King Parrot

KING PARROT

I was out in the garden today pruning trees and mulching the remains. There was a lot noise, chainsaws and mulching machines, but above the noise I could hear birds calling, voices I had not heard for quite a while.

As I emptied the drum of mulchings under the liquid amber tree I could hear the calls again. Looking up there was a family of young Australian King Parrots.



I live not very far from a settlement called King Parrot Creek. It is off the Seymour to Yea Road, the turn off is a little past Trawool.  We have become so accustomed  to the name King Parrot Creek, that we sometimes forget why it has been so named. We do not see the see these parrots around here very often.





And there they were. Four King Parrots, the full name is Australian King Parrots, Alisterus scapularis. They are generally found in humid and heavily forested hilly regions of the East coast of Australia. They like to feed on fruits and seeds both from trees and from the ground so I am not sure what it was that attracted them to my liquid amber tree.  They seemed to be picking the bark off dead twigs. I am nit sure whether there was something to eat there or whether they were just sharpening their beaks.

Whatever they were doing they were quite happy for me to be poking a camera at them. I had to go back to my work long before they were inclined to move.