.....that you can keep, buy or sell all these native birds, without having to obtain a licence. Did you?
Now , somehow the thought of just anyone keeping our native birds in cages worries me. I know, I think someone explained it to me before, you are not allowed to catch them in the wild, but if you can show a receipt for one , the next generation won't have any proof where you got the bird.
Yes, I know, many years ago it was popular in Europe for kids to breed Zebra Finches, my young son had some. Back then I saw nothing wrong with it, most likely had no idea where they came from? Australia? Where on earth was that?
Yes, they were born and raised in captivity and wouldn't survive in the wild.
But it still leaves me with a strange uneasy feeling. The list is just by far too long, don't you think?
Birds you don't need a licence to keep
{C}
You don't need a licence to keep exotic (non-native) bird species. There are also 41 native species that you may buy, sell or keep without a licence. These species are:
- sulphur-crested cockatoo
- galah
- little corella
- long-billed corella
- western corella
- cockatiel
- red-collared lorikeet
- scaly-breasted lorikeet
- musk lorikeet
- rainbow lorikeet
- Port Lincoln parrot
- twenty-eight parrot
- hooded parrot
- red-rumped parrot
- red-capped parrot
- princess parrot
- bourke's parrot
- elegant parrot
- scarlet-chested parrot
- Adelaide rosella
- eastern rosella
- pale-headed rosella
- yellow rosella
- western rosella
- budgerigar
- bar-shouldered dove
- diamond dove
- emerald dove
- peaceful dove
- common bronzewing
- crested pigeon
- brown quail
- king quail
- stubble quail
- little button-quail
- painted button-quail
- blue-faced parrot-finch
- Gouldian finch
- painted finch
- star finch
- zebra finch.
Note that these native birds are still protected and you are not allowed to trap them in the wild. It is illegal to trap protected birds, including exempt species, anywhere in NSW. The maximum penalty for trapping a protected or threatened bird is a fine of $220,000 and/or a two-year prison sentence.
Hi ML ,I bred birds in captivity as a boy and did it commercially back in the 80s and early 90s but it was very heavily regulated we even had to have a licence to breed some exotic birds I mainly bred colour mutations in finches and small parrots mostly neophemas blue scarlets yellow turks and my favorite pink bourke parrots and many others these were all captive bred birds ,and like I said it was very strict, the then fisheries and wild life would turn up without notice to check that your avieries were clean and not over crowded and to go over your breeding log books and if they found any descrepancies you were in deep ----- ! comfiscation huge fines even jail , with some birds they even took feathers from your beeding pairs so they could do DNA tests on any young bred , it was strict and so it should be the idea that they have done away with some of the licenseing and restrictions makes me very uncomfortable to say the least.
I now get a buzz seeing birds that I used to breed in the wild the one I would most like to see is the Scarlet chested Parrot
I'd like to see the resources & energy that are allocated to breeding captive birds put into the conservation of birds in the wild. I support any regulations that further this aim.
I love birds and being in their presence makes me feel better but there is no way I would EVER put an animal that flys free in a cage.
A woman came up to me in the park the other day while I was sitting with some cockatoos and started talking to me about her parrots. She had three Eclectus parrots in her one bedroom flat. They roam free in the flat (so she says) but are caged while the owners are away. The mere thought of thosr large birds never being able to fly free from tree to tree horrified me and made me quite sad.