At Mt. Cotton, this little fellow is coming in with other birds. I am reasonably sure it is a juvenile Red-winged parrot. I haven't seen any of these in this area before.
We were driving up there today and also spotted what we think were juvenile Emerald doves. They didn't stop long enough to get a photo. Also spotted a white faced heron too.
That's an impressive find if it's not an escapee. Red-wings don't occur in Brisbane but this is ovbiously a Red-wing though.
Cheers, Owen.
Owen, the fact that it is young and not with a flock makes me think it might be an escapee. However, with the unusual movement of birds in this area lately, I couldn't rule out a wild bird either. Mt. Cotton is a treasure trove of birds and animals.
Karen
Brisbane southside.
Very cool Karen. How exciting!
My Simpson & Day shows them down to the NSW border on the coast and inland further south, so we're cclearly at the edge of their range.
I've never seen these guys at all, so if they are in Brissie they're not common here.
Cheers
Tim
Brisbane
Nice catch Karen, according to Morcombe they are rarely on the ground as well.
Wow, interesting facts about this bird. I think maybe it is shaping up more and more to be an escapee but I guess we can't actually prove it.
Karen
Brisbane southside.
Given the huge amount of rain you easterners have had in the last 2 years it's certainly interesting to contemplate whether this bird is an escapee or whether its range is changing. Thanks for the photo, Karen, & thanks for the information, Owen, timmo & cathshane.
Thank you Owen, and thank you to all who added to the thread, making it much more interesting.
Karen
Brisbane southside.
Aweome, I love these parrots.
I support the idea of spreading range as a definite possibility. My old bird books always had the distribution shying well away from the south-east Qld coast. Newer books seem to have their range coming much more into the SE of Qld. My observations from 6-10 years ago (before uni and then moving to Tas): I have seen small flocks of them at Tin Can Bay and in Noosa. This was only an occasional thing, and I didn't know enough at the time to take inland conditions into account (ie whether drought was a factor)... I grew up in Gympie (30-45mins inland from both those spots), and never saw them there, so I did always find it odd that a predominantly inland bird would favour coastal areas instead of where I lived... Anyways, that's just my observations.... It would not surprise me at all to find the odd bird / flock spreading into Brisbane.
Cheers, and thanks for posting the photo.
Scott.
Thanks for the photo Karen and you maybe on to something here as I have never seen anything like it and I hope there are more of them about.
Regards
Shane
Thanks for your input, Scott. Shane, I hope we see more of this bird, but I hope we see it in the company of others of its kind. Or, we may never see it again. But lets hope it stays well where ever it ends up.
Karen
Brisbane southside.