Golden-shouldered Parrots

Just back from a birding and rock art foray up to Musgrave and Lakefield, We looked for Golden-shouldered parrots on one afternoon and two early mornings, only finding them on the final morning Sept 24 and then with considerable difficulty, not a great time of year to locate this species. Sue Shepard from Artemis Station was very helpful as always, our thanks to her. Anyway, we found at least 7 of the parrots, tracked by their high-pitched calls- I have posted two cuts on IBC (Internet Bird Collection) and Xenocanto, neither of which had any for this species- one is the surprisingly Pale-headed Rosella-like flight and anxiety call, the other the feeding and contact call. I was surprised to find the birds feeding in what looks to be some kind of wattle tree, nibbling away at the yellow-green flower stalks, and not feeding on the ground at all like all my previous sightings have been. A limited search of the literature (HBW, and Australian Parrots by Forshaw) basically lists grass seeds of various species as the food sources and makes no mention of wattles being used. I had the wrong search image and was basically looking for them to fly up off the ground, it was only by hearing the calls that we found the very unobtrusive birds feeding in the trees. There were at least 6 female plumage birds including one with almost no tail which I suspected might be a juvenile, it was always with a female plumaged bird- I will post shots of these on the IBC shortly plus a video clip of a fine adult male feeding in the wattles. Phil Gregory Website 1: Http://www.sicklebillsafaris.com Website 2: Http://www.cassowary-house.com.au