So far as I know, there is still no rock-solid certified
record of a completed A King Parrot breeding event in Canberra. The birds
tend to head off to the ranges in summer, with only the occasional pair seen
hanging around hollows, sometimes entering them, in suburban reserves.
This year there was such a pair around a hollow in the old zoo area excised
from the Callum Brae lease, and still outside the nature reserve of that name.
It does seem that the birds are quite shy around their nests, if that is what
these suburban hollows are.
This morning I was attracted to begging noises rather akin
to young galahs coming from one of the leafy birches. It was a pair of
king parrots with 2 noisy young. The young were doing their insistent
begging followed by the curious neck-twisting regurgitation by the
adults. The party then moved to near the feeder in the giant spreading
Irish Strawberry where they continued the performance at close range. The
adult pair have been back around the feeder for the last two weeks, calling for
a top-up with their distinctive whistle.
Whether all ‘DYs’ should go into the books as a
breeding record is an issue aired from time to time in this forum -
and others. The point, of course, is that the nest might be some distance
away from the relevant study area. Begging Superb Parrots in Belconnen
are unlikely to have come from Belconnen hollows. The ‘CF’
notation raises a similar issue. Dependant King Parrots like those of
this morning could certainly have flown some distance. It is possible
they came from a hollow in one of the suburban reserves. It is also
possible that they did not.
