For the past few mornings I have had an unusual visitor to my back garden in
South Oakleigh, a SouthEastern suburb of Melbourne. It is not in any
Australian Field Guides and on consulting Juniper and Parn "Parrots : A
Guide to the Parrots of the World" my best guess is a Ring-necked Parakeet
(Psittacula borealis) crossed with an Alexandrine Parakeet (Psittacula
eupatria). Psittacular krameri is also a Ring-necked Parakeet but I
discarded this one because it is smaller and doesn't have both mandibles
coloured.
Description:
metal band on left leg with numbers on it, couldn't read them.
quite tame, it sat above me on clothes line and only fluttered to the
other side of clothesline when I moved
two mornings it flew in with Galahs, two mornings it flew in with
Rainbow Lorrikeets (it fed first with the Galahs but the Rainbows
had it bluffed)
LARGE prominant rose-red parrot beak, both top and bottom
mandible
small black eyes, ringed with orange/yellow
smudged black line under eyes
ice green (washed avocado) front and chest
high black neck band in front changing to a deep dusky rose pink
band at back
mid green head and wings
deep dusky rose pink flash on top of wings (Alexandrine Parakeet has
maroon shoulder patches, these are definitely pink and are on top of the
wings, not at the leading edge)
lemon-grey tail that has VERY LONG central tail feathers that are
tinged yellow at the end
no pattern under wings, pale lemon/grey-green
same size as a galah, but slimmer and more upright
Have searched the archives and note that Michael Norris reported a similar
bird in February 2000 at Beaumaris, just a few kilometers away from here. I
wonder if this is the same bird, but now fully matured and living in the
surrounding golf courses?
Any suggestions?
Joy Knight
---
Russell Woodford
Music & Info Systems
Sacred Heart College Geelong
http://web.shc.melb.catholic.edu.au/music/auralonline.html
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