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Re: Mustoe RFI Night Parrot

To:
Subject: Re: Mustoe RFI Night Parrot
From: <>
Date: Tue, 20 Feb 2007 20:55:20 +1100
Hi all,

I agree with Simon's comments. Before our 2006 Grasswren Trip to Mt Isa I did a 
lengthy Google search as well as going back over some historical texts I have 
access to and came up with exactly the same comments.

More than once I found the suggestion that the bird is crepuscular or diurnal 
rather than nocturnal. 

Who knows but maybe now, with our crazy weather throwing up lots of unusual 
sightings, it is the right time to do some serious searching. More than one 
bird has been thought extinct/threatened rare until we learnt when and where to 
look for it. 

Yes, I am sure this bird is not at all common and finding it is like trying to 
find a needle in an Australia-size haystack but wouldn't it be wonderful .... 

So, how do we go about setting up a network to  share knowledge and reduce the 
size of he haystack?

Jen


---- Simon Mustoe <> wrote: 
> These discussions tend to generate a lot of digression and discourse about 
> hardly related topics. For instance, there have been almost as many postings 
> about the number of birders in UK versus Australia as there have actually 
> about night parrot. I would like to find out more about this bird by sharing 
> knowledge about it - after all, this is a very powerful forum for this 
> purpose.
> 
> I have a couple of issues for consideration:
> 
> 1. Why do we believe night parrot is actually nocturnal? I am going to pose 
> a hypothesis for discussion, thus:
> 
> ***Night parrots are considered nocturnal because, i) hardly anyone ever 
> walks through their habitat during the day; and ii) because most sightings 
> are made when the animals are 'on the move' (rather like roos) in the 
> evening, travelling to and from watering holes like other similar-sized 
> parrots e.g. Bourke's parrot. Night parrot is not nocturnal at all. This 
> assumption derives entirely from sampling bias.
> 
> My next hypothesis:
> 
> ***Night parrot is, like many other Australian birds, nomadic. However, even 
> nomadic birds occur in some areas 'regularly' and can be seen with some 
> reliability. If the first hypothesis is correct, we hypothesise that the 
> Diamantina region is an area where night parrot occurs consistently and that 
> a given level of effort (of unknown person-hours) would result in the bird 
> being found regularly.
> 
> Please respond to the list, not to me. And try not to digress from the point 
> - keep responses to the thread relevant to the thread, or else set up a new 
> thread.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Simon.
> 
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