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Wildlifing Update: Budgerigar

To: Birding-aus <>
Subject: Wildlifing Update: Budgerigar
From: Michael Todd <>
Date: Sat, 30 Apr 2005 22:05:23 +1000
Hello all,

I've had some requests for Budgerigar photos so I decided to put together a short photo-essay on the wild Budgerigar for my website (www.wildlifing.com). I've seen budgies in some large flocks before but nothing like the flocks that I've read about in the literature.

Chinner (1977) recalls numbers so great in the McDonnell Ranges that Budgerigars landing in Red Gums were of such number that their combined weight broke branches of up to 4 cm diameter! Chinner estimated flocks of 10,000 to 15,000 were coming down to drink at Ellery Creek Big Hole in December 1972. Budgies snapping branches through sheer weight! In the similar vein to the recent thread on finch flock size has anyone on Birding-aus seen huge flocks of Budgies?

The other interesting thing about the Budgerigar is that they are probably related to the Night Parrot and the Ground Parrot (as well as the Kakapo???). I find I fascinating that Budgies are so well-adapted to their environment yet are so very adaptable (as evidenced by their abundance and success in captivity). So very different to the Night Parrot.

I've put up some photos of architecture and still-life (I've called it man-made). Also, I've been gradually adding photos to Tom Tarrant's Australian Bird Image Database. Many of the photos I'm putting on ABID haven't been put on my website.

Cheers,

Mick

Budgie Reference:
Chinner, D.W.(1977) South Australian Ornithologist, 27: 188-192.

--
Michael Todd Wildlifing Images & Sounds of Nature
Latest Additions: New Caledonia- Kagu, Crow Honeyeater, New Caledonian Grassbird
www.wildlifing.com
Toronto, NSW, Australia 04101 23715

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