From mid 1980s & 1990s I did many road trips in the vicinity of Yass, Boorowa, Harden, Young, Cowra, Grenfell, etc. I was always in the process of going to
or returning from somewhere further, so did not often do random stops. The Superb Parrots was always one to look out for and maybe found at all on half to a third of such travels. The most likely way to see them (whilst driving) was small flying flocks or
the birds on the ground near the road edge, presumably feeding there. That is obviously related to the ease of finding them that way as much better than seeing them in trees. I also recall being very pleased to find them once, at a rest stop near Murrumbateman.
They clearly have expanded their range toward us.
Philip
From: Martin Butterfield [
Sent: Saturday, 26 January, 2019 12:24 PM
To: COG List
Subject: [canberrabirds] Re: ANU Superbs
In my blogpost I expressed my initial surprise at the birds feeding on the ground. That was because in my observations of the birds in Canberra (mainly AIS or Mount Rogers) I had always seen seen
them up in the trees (presumably feeding on lerp). I commented that Forshaw describes them as often feeding on the ground.
On further thought I recalled that when the species first appeared in Canberra the wider debate included the problems experienced in their core range around Boorowa, of the birds being killed while
feeding on grain spilt on the roads by agricultural trucks. So ground feeding is not at all unusual. (I would note that, like red-rumps, for such brightly coloured birds they can be well camouflaged if the grass is at all long.)
On Fri, 25 Jan 2019 at 13:14, Martin Butterfield <> wrote:
Kevin Windle was king enough to show me the Superb Parrots around the Coombs Building at ANU this morning. We estimated that we saw 40 birds in our lap of the building, although they were very
mobile and not easy to count. I have put a few photos in
a blog post.
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