The return of large numbers of Little Corellas to the inner Sydney suburbs as
reported here coincides with the fruiting of the many Plane Trees in the area.
The trees' seed balls are still green and I think it is several months before
they would naturally begin to disperse their seeds. There is now an incredible
carpet of shredded seed material under some of the trees, and the birds are
spending hours on end in particular trees. One of their current favourites is
at the Elizabeth St entrance to Central Station across from Fouveaux St;
another favourite is a little further up Chalmers St at the Devonshire St
tunnel entrance to Central Station. Birds in the former tree are visible if
driving up Elizabeth St throughout much of the day. They are also resting and
preening on nearby main station platform shelters and wires. There are juvenile
birds present although I haven't noticed many to date. Over the last few days
along Chalmers St and Prince Alfred Park
in the various trees there seem to have been between 80 and 200 birds, but as
these trees are widespread in the inner city there could be many more birds in
the area.
A number of other urban-dwelling parrot species feed on Plane Tree seeds, but
as far as I can recall they do so at a later stage when the seed ball has at
least partially dried and the seeds are probably easier to remove. Galahs and
Sulphur-crested Cockatoos in particular feed on these, also Eastern Rosellas in
the northern suburbs. Little Corellas may be using this food source before some
of these others are able to do so. Goldfinches also feed on these seeds. They
used to arrive to feed on the seeds in winter. I have not seen Goldfinches
feeding in the Plane Trees on my street in Redfern since 2006. It may be
coincidental but this was the first or second season in which the Little
Corellas appeared in large numbers locally.
Eric Finley
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