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Wild About Noosa with Tony Wellington
WILD ABOUT NOOSA HINTERLAND
WITH Christmas looming, I couldn’t go past an opportunity to feature our glorious King Parrot in all its festive Yuletide colouring.
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These charming birds are currently raiding our garden for the cherry tomatoes that spring up everywhere. In fact, they’re not interested in the tomato flesh: rather, they happily tear away at each tomato for the tiny seeds inside the fruit.
As so often occurs in the world of birds, it is the male King Parrot that is the more highly decorated, although females are not without their own greenheaded splendour. Unfortunately, their call is not as pretty as their appearance, being a screech not unlike a squeaky door hinge.
Sadly, King Parrots across eastern Australia are currently suffering from a wasting disease that prevents them from absorbing nutrients. The affected birds become so weak that they cannot fly. Experts studying the problem believe that artificial feeding of these birds, particularly the use of feeding trays or dishes, may be exacerbating the spread of the disease. While we humans are having to change our behaviour to deal with COVID-19, we may also have to alter our habits to help King Parrots survive their own pandemic.
King Parrots need deep hollows in old tree trunks for nesting. The entrance can be many metres above the nest, with the parents - and eventually the chicks - having to scramble up to 10 metres between nest and opening. Another way to support our wildlife is to leave old, dead tree trunks standing in both paddocks and gardens.
Have a wonderful holiday season everyone. King Parrot
