I am one of the few fortunate people who believes they have seen a night parrot. It was 50 years ago now in the Northern Territory when I was a teacher there. I told the story
some years ago on this site and will not repeat it here. But it leads me to feel some sympathy for John Young and the rejection of his reported observations.
In my case, the live bird I saw was rising from the Spinifex in the headlights of the 4WD and the Aboriginal men with me identified it from its call. Mirrlambing they named
it. Later at the remains of a recent camp fire there were burned feathers which they also identified as Mirrlambing. I won’t bore everybody again with the details but my point is that my evidence is not rigorous enough to be proof that I saw a Night Parrot
nor that I once had some Night Parrot feathers now that I no longer have them.
I feel some sympathy with John Young. Nobody doubts that he did ‘rediscover’ the Night Parrot. But a scientific panel is dubious about his later ‘evidence’ suggesting that
it may have been purposely made to seem more conclusive than it was. It is not for us to say , or certainly not for me to say – even the scientific committee was not unanimous on all points. But if John Young has erred at all – and I do not say that he did
– it is in knowing that he saw evidence of Night Parrots and in wanting the world to believe him so much that he may have given in to the temptation to make the evidence seem more conclusive than it actually was
Most of us bird observers are familiar with that temptation – you know you saw it but you can’t prove it beyond doubt.
I hope John Young is not totally discouraged and continues his research and I hope he finds the kind of evidence the scientific community will accept.
From: Philip Veerman <>
Date: Saturday, 23 March 2019 at 12:05 pm
To: chatline <>
Subject: RE: [canberrabirds] Dubious Night parrot research
Well if people want yet another side to this story, there is also this one: from
Greg Roberts
Management plans to bring the Night Parrot back from the brink will need to be revamped and the birding community is set to be deeply divided after Australia's biggest
private conservation group controversially dismissed a raft of records of the critically endangered bird claimed by north Queensland naturalist John Young.
More here: https://sunshinecoastbirds.blogspot.com/2019/03/where-to-now-for-night-parrot.html
Greg Roberts
Blog: http://sunshinecoastbirds.blogspot.com.au/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gregbirdo
Twitter: https://twitter.com/gregrobertsqld
Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/sunshinecoastbirds/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gregrobertsqld/
And don’t involve me. I don’t know the true story or any of the closely involved people (at least in this context) and therefore I am not in a position to take
sides. It is a sad dispute. John Young is and has long been clearly an exceptionally skilled field observer but some aspects of his presentation in Canberra a few years ago and the story are quite strange.
Philip
From: David Rees [
Sent: Saturday, 23 March, 2019 11:55 AM
To: Bill Hall
Cc: <>
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] Dubious Night parrot research
Further to Bill's email the 'horses mouth' can be seen here. Not a great look, but better now than never.
On Fri, Mar 22, 2019 at 12:35 PM Bill Hall <> wrote:
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