Hi Chris and others
There were feral flocks of both Long-billed and Little Corellas in Sydney in
1984 but the flocks were only just starting. Nowdays similar flocks can be found
throughout the coastal seaboard of NSW although mostly Wollongong to Newcastle
and west to the Cumberland Plain and lower Hunter Valley. The new field guides
now tend to show these populations of coastal NSW. The flocks originated in the
early 1980s when licenses were issued to a few bird trappers to trap the
corellas in the wheatbelt of north-west Victoria instead of just allowing the
farmers to shoot them because pof the damage they were doing in the wheat crops.
The birds were then imported into NSW for sale in pet shops and I can remember
in 1983 that you could buy a Long-billed Corella in Sydney pet shops for $10.
Many kind hearted people did just that and then misguidely released them, thus
starting the feral flocks. Here on the NSW Central Coast, 110 km north of
Sydney, the Long-billed Corellas are now more common than Galahs, which only
became established here in the early 1970's themselves.
Alan Morris
NSWFOC Records Officer
Chris Harrison wrote:
> I am going over my Aus. bird list in preparation for an upcoming trip down
> under, and I noticed a curious thing. I have a "tick" for both Long-billed
> and Little Corella that I saw together at Barrenjoey near Palm Beach, Sydney
> in 1984.
>
> Was I hallucinating? The range maps in the two field guides I have say I
> was. There was a large group of them feeding on the ground. I was with
> another birder, albeit another American on our first birding trip to Aus.,
> but we were both convinced that's what we saw. Are there
> isolated/introduced/feral populations of these birds on the coast?
>
> Thanks in advance
>
> Chris
> ________________
> Chris Harrison
> San Angelo, TX
>
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