The feathers in the photo look a bit dishevelled (some more than others),
but don't look particularly worn to me. So I don't think they are old
feathers that have been moulted.
Stephen Ambrose
Ryde, NSW
-----Original Message-----
From: Birding-Aus On Behalf Of
Philip Veerman
Sent: Wednesday, 11 March 2015 2:07 PM
To:
Subject: Important New Information on Night Parrots
Another weird story. Actually it seems there never was an alarming story
(that rekindled this whole cat debate). It is likely that cats have been
killing Night Parrots for years so there was nothing new in the suggestion.
But it appears there still isn't proof of it (at least from this). Things
should not be overstated. It does not help the cause. Found feathers does
not indicate that a bird died. Apart from other mentioned options, it could
just be moulted feathers, an option that curiously is not mentioned and
could be the most likely. It seems that these birds don't move much, so
nothing odd about finding a collection of moulted feathers. There is a
little photo there, that I can't see evidence that the feathers have been
bitten of at the base. If feathers have been bitten off by a cat, it should
be easy to see that on at least some of them, and this would be worth
mentioning, without going as far as DNA analysis for cat saliva or whatever
they did. This item has this quote: "Murphy says: "With respect to the
feathers, the conclusion is that no-one can say with any certainty what
happened to result in a Night Parrot losing 31 feathers." A rather weird
statement, given that in general, all birds moult all their feathers each
year, and that is a lot more than 31!
Philip
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