The story of the Ring-necked Parrakeets is an example of strong pair-bonding
amongst parrots.
I witnessed a another example of this a couple of years ago beside the
highway south of Canberra on the way to Cooma. I saw a couple of Crimson
Rosellas fly low across the road and one be hit by a car. The dead bird was
hurled to the side of the road. I was following the car that had hit the
bird and when I saw the incident I pulled over. The unharmed bird had flown
to some trees about 50m away and sat there calling to the other bird. After
a minute or so it flew back, landed by the corpse and started nudging it, as
if trying to make to make it get up and fly on.
It was too sad to stay, so I can't say how long the live bird stayed with
its dead mate.
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John Leonard (Dr),
PO Box 243,
Woden, ACT 2606
'Nature always withdraws her gifts sooner or
later.' Fernand Braudel
http://www.spirit.net.au/~jleonard
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