Some birders seem to be having difficulty in understanding why John Young’s recording of the Night Parrot call/song should not be made freely available. I suggest everyone go to this Australian Geographic webpage http://tinyurl.com/lczrw5t and read the section “Unusual biology of the bird”.
Bob Inglis Sandstone Point Qld ===============================
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Hello Bob (and everyone else),
I’ve read all the transcripts and I would say that there are good conservation reasons for releasing the call publicly. As long as the location of these particular parrots at the moment is kept under wraps, the calls being played elsewhere won’t harm them, especially given a low likelihood of actual success. Maybe other locations can be located. So little is known about Night Parrots that the more locations they can be found at the better.
Of course those calls have a high commercial value as well and as a consultant, John may want to hold out to see what government is willing to pay. I assume no one was paying for John’s fuel costs while travelling all those thousands of kilometres.
It sounds as though they respond well to the calls so this would make it an effective technique. One of the problems from a conservation perspective is that we don’t know how long the parrots will stay in this area. If they are nomadic they could eventually leave- maybe never to return, when environmental conditions change. It is essential that the biologists involved (the Night Parrot network people I assume) collect as much information as possible while they can. Others excited about Night Parrots could look elsewhere armed with the call, and hopefully some basic habitat information so that they know where to look. Australia is a big place- there are plenty of places that could be searched.
I’m looking forward to hearing and seeing more about the night parrot in the future, like everyone else.
Cheers
Mick