Flock of 50 rare and mysterious parrots discovered in Australia

Indigenous rangers in Western Australia have discovered a colony of 50 night parrots, one of Australia's rarest and most mysterious birds.

Mysterious bird

In the arid interior of Australia lives one of Australia's rarest birds : the night parrot . Missing for more than a century, a surviving population was rediscovered in 2013.

Until recently, Australia's known population of night parrots numbered only a few dozen, scattered across the deserts of Queensland and Western Australia.

Nocturnal parrots hide in the grass to sleep during the day and only come out to forage at night, making them difficult to spot. (Photo: Ngururrpa Rangers).

There is one very unique feature that makes the task of searching with a recording device very difficult. Because the groups of night parrots are dispersed and live in very small numbers in each location, they do not have a fixed, uniform call throughout the species. Almost every individual night parrot has a different call, depending on how they imitate the sounds of nearby animals.

This nocturnal parrot was once found throughout Australia's arid lands, but its numbers declined sharply in the late 19th century.

The bird was not clearly recorded for more than 100 years, until a dead bird was found near Boulia in western Queensland in 1990. Another dead bird was found in Diamantina National Park, also in western Queensland, in 2006.

The team set up audio recorders and camera traps to search. (Photo: Ngururrpa Rangers).

In 2013, a small population was discovered by naturalist John Young in south-west Queensland. That area is now a wildlife sanctuary.

Nocturnal parrots are notoriously difficult to spot. They dig tunnels in dense undergrowth and hide there during the day, emerging at night to feed.

In indigenous culture there are stories where mothers tell their children that the night parrot's cry is the sound of an evil spirit and warns them not to stray from the camp.

Detects populations of up to 50

A team of indigenous rangers and scientists have made a groundbreaking discovery. Using audio recorders to search for traces of this mysterious bird, they have been persistent for 7 years since 2018.

As mentioned, each night parrot has a different call, so using a recording device is difficult. The team had to analyze each individual call in 31 different areas from sunset to dawn. Fortunately, no matter what the call was, it was within a certain frequency range that could be referenced.

A colony of up to 50 extremely rare night parrots has been discovered. (Photo: Ngururrpa Rangers).

When they detect unusual sounds, such as the calls of a non-nocturnal animal, in that frequency range, they raise the priority of the area because it may be a parrot mimicking it. They then set up camera traps to reinforce and capture the images.

Because each individual has a different call, they were able to count the number of night parrots in 17 of the 31 monitoring areas.

They discovered the world's largest known population of night parrots, numbering up to 50, living in Western Australia's Great Sandy Desert, on land managed by the Ngururrpa people.

Lightning strikes can accidentally kill sleeping night parrots. (Photo: Ngururrpa Rangers).

The team's camera traps also showed that the parrots' biggest threat is cats. They are skilled hunters and extremely cunning in the dark.

In addition, through analysis of satellite imagery data, the group also concluded that forest fires are also a great danger to this bird species. The area where they live is covered with flammable bushes. Fires can burn both the bushes and the nocturnal parrots sleeping inside.