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Superb Parrot at Braeside Park

To: "Chris Timewell" <>
Subject: Superb Parrot at Braeside Park
From: Chris Tzaros <>
Date: Fri, 09 Feb 2001 16:45:23 +1100
G,day Chris and birding-aussers,

The sighting of a Superb Parrot at Braeside (se Melbourne) reminds me of an observation of mine from a few weeks ago at Edithvale Swamp (also se Melbourne), where I saw a pair of Yellow Rosella's, or lets just get that right, Crimson Rosella Platycercus elegans race flaveolus.  With Dollarbird also being recently spotted at Braeside, anyone would think they were on the Murray River!

Cheers,

Chris Tzaros



At 05:00 PM 09-02-01 +1100, you wrote:
Last Sunday while doing a spot of bird-watching at Braeside Park (in the SE suburbs of Melbourne), I had a chat with one of the regular Braeside birdwatchers.  He showed me a couple of photos he had taken 2-3 weeks earlier of a single Superb Parrot on the branch of a Manna Gum within the Heathy Woodland area.
I can only assume that this was an aviary escapee or a descendent of an aviary escapee.  My copy of The Atlas of Victorian Birds (Emison et al 1987) indicates the presence of an escapee population of Superb Parrots from the Melbourne area. 
Has anybody else seen Superb Parrots in the Melbourne area in the last couple of years?  Is this isolated population increasing or decreasing?  Have they been observed breeding in the Melbourne area?
Given the Superb Parrot is listed as vulnerable in Australia under both the Commonwealth leglislation (Environmental Potection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999) and the recent Action Plan for Australian Birds, perhaps we need to know more.  Could an escapee Superb Parrot population provide some useful biological information which may assist this threatened species within its natural range?

Chris Timewell


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