Hooded
Parrots are endemic to the Northern Territory. They have a limited range and
Pine Creek is a well known place to find them. The closely related
Golden-shouldered Parrot is confined to a limited range on Cape York. Both
occupy savannah woodland and nest in tunnels they excavate in termite mounds.
The Hooded
Parrot generally breeds from April to June. We found that after the breeding
season in early July a flock of about at least 100 birds were regularly coming
into Pine Creek on dusk to drink and roost overnight in trees within the
township.
Finding
birds out in the vast woodlands would be a long shot so the easy option is to
wait for the birds to come into town for a drink. Also during the breeding
season, pairs would be widely dispersed and may not come into town. The large
flock we saw contained many juvenile birds – the juvenile males look like
females so in the flock we saw the adult males were well outnumbered by plain
green birds.
|
Male
Hooded Parrot in for a drink at a leaking sprinkler in Public Gardens near the
Lazy Lizard Resort Pine Creek. |
|
Female
Hooded Parrot at the same sprinkler as the male in the photo above. |
|
Male
and female Hooded Parrots perched in a tree waiting to drink at pop up
sprinklers on a nearby lawn. |
Other
species came in for a drink at the leaking sprinkler.
|
Little
Friarbirds are very numerous everywhere we go in the Top End. |
|
Rainbow Lorikeets – the red collared sub species found in the Top End. |
|
I am
not sure why this sprinkler was so popular, it was in a moderately busy
location? |
|
Blue-faced
Honeyeater – another common bird up here. |
|
Same
bird - another pose. |
|
Ditto above. |
It would
have been preferable to find some Hooded Parrots in a more natural setting for
photos. On the other hand, it was great so see a potentially vulnerable native
bird species that appears to have built up a good population based on
exploiting the Pine Creek township water and safe roosting sites in the town’s
gardens. Also this is a win/win situation as a good number of visitors come to Pine
Creek to see the Hooded Parrot.
They are NOT rainbow lorikeets. They are Red-collared Lorikeets!!
ReplyDeleteAt the time of preparing and publishing the Hooded Parrots at Pine Creek post the Red-collard Lorikeet was a sub-species of the Rainbow Lorikeet Trichoglossus haematodus rubitorquis (refer BirdLife Australia Working List V1.1). Since then the Red-collared has been recognised as a separate species Trichoglossus rubritorquis (refer BirdLife Australia Working List V2) The latest field guide to be published in Australia "The Australian Bird Guide by Menkhorst et al" show the Red-collared as a species, the other guides show it to be a sub-species.
Delete