Tag Archives: Australian parrots

Red-capped Parrot (Purpureicephalus spurius)

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The Red-capped Parrot (Purpureicephalus spurius), also called the Pileated Parakeet is an Australian species of broad-tailed parrot.  I took the first 3 shots at Foxes Lair.  The middle one is a juvenile.

IMG_4692a IMG_4623a IMG_4633aThe species occurs from the Moore River southwards in southwestern Australia. Its natural habitat is Marri (Corymbia calophylla), but has adpated to farmland, orchards and suburban landscapes in Perth.  Sadly some farmers consider them a pest and will shoot them.

Bird watchers have the best chances of seeing them at Foxes Lair, Dryandra Woodland, Stirling Range and a few lucky people in the Perth area see them in their backyards!  Use your miles to get to Australia, then any of these destinations is a few hours drive from Perth.

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This charming bi-lingual book is about an Aboriginal legend of the Red-capped Parrot which is called “Kaawar” in their language.  I bought a copy at the gift shop at Yanchep National Park but it can also be ordered online.

Kaawar book

 

LEARN MORE ABOUT RED-CAPPED PARROTS

Wikipedia

World Parrot Trust

Birdlife

Birds in Backyards

VIDEOS

Foraging in the grass at Bremer Bay, WA

Short but a good close up of a wild bird.  Most videos were of captive parrots so I took the best I could find!

Western Rosella (Platycercus icterotis)

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The Western Rosella (Platycercus icterotis) less commonly known as the Stanley Rosella, Earl of Derby’s parakeet or Yellow-cheeked parakeet, is the smallest species of rosella and is found in the South West of Australia in Eucalypt forests and timbered areas.  I took the first 2 photos at Dryandra Woodland and the last one at Stirling Range Retreat.

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And here’s a close up from Wikipedia as my shots don’t do this beautiful bird justice!

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Although Western Rosellas can theoretically be found anywhere in South Western Australia, they are sadly becoming harder to find.  I was really happy to have 2 sightings during my trip in Feb 2014 – Dryandra Woodland & Stirling Range Retreat.

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LEARN MORE ABOUT WESTERN ROSELLAS

Wikipedia

World Parrot Trust

Birdlife

Birds in Backyards

VIDEOS

Everyone loves a picnic!

 This is on my other post but it’s worth watching again, especially if you really care about these beautiful birds.

Baudin’s Black Cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus baudinii)

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Baudin’s Black Cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus baudinii), also known as Baudin’s Cockatoo or Long-billed Black Cockatoo,is a large black cockatoo found in Australia. The binomial commemorates the French explorer Nicolas Baudin.

I was lucky enough to see them early in the morning out by Wungong Gorge near Armadale, which is 45 minutes from Perth but unfortunately they had the sun behind them so all I got was a silhouette.  In the future, I would advise going here in the afternoon when the sun would be on the opposite side of the trees where the cockatoos are found.

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At least Wikipedia has a nice close up of this beautiful cockatoo.

BaudinThe Baudin’s Black Cockatoo is one of two species of white-tailed black cockatoo endemic to south-western Australia which were only separated taxonomically in 1948. It is closely associated with moist, heavily forested areas dominated by Marri and is threatened by habitat destruction.

Sites identified by BirdLife International as being important for Baudin’s Black Cockatoo conservation are Araluen-Wungong, Gidgegannup, Jalbarragup, Mundaring-Kalamunda, North Dandalup, the Stirling Range and The Lakes. Local birders also see them around  Margaret River.   In the map below, I have marked out a few of these places that are popular for birders.  Wungong Gorge is purple, Margaret River is green and Stirling Range is blue.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS PARROT

Wikipedia

World Parrot Trust

Birdlife

Biodiversity Australia

Murdoch University

VIDEO

Spectacular up close footage of some Baudin’s Black Cockatoos near Perth.

Just Returned From Birding In The Aussie Outback

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People often ask me why I travel so far abroad to see wild birds, especially parrots when I have so many in the wonderful country I live in – Australia.  Actually this trip has been several years in the making and I had been working on itineraries but it always got pushed to one side because I had so many mileage-earning opportunities that enabled the exotic trips overseas.  I would normally never be able to afford such travel if I hadn’t been able to churn a few credit cards and shift spending to maximize mileage earning.  I also got involved in some insanely lucrative promos such as US Airway’s Grand Slam, Daily Getaways, various Facebook promos, survey taking and checking into hotels via Foursquare.  The last few years have been a golden era for those who were savvy enough to take advantage of it!  So with lots of miles on hand, we concentrated on overseas travel, even flying business class in some cases!

But the one thing I had to face is that my husband and I are not spring chickens and we are not getting any younger.  Traveling in the Aussie Outback involves huge distances and is very challenging.  I knew we couldn’t put it off much longer, even though we only had to burn 10,000 AA miles for each one way sector on Qantas and I booked the Virgin Australia flight from Hobart to Brisbane during a 15% off sale.

During the last month, I drove over 8000 kilometers in cars rented from Hertz, Bargain Car Hire and Thrifty!  The parrots have been amazing, we saw 37 species just on this trip, though I have seen more Aussie parrot species in my life since some are also found in West Papua and some are found in my own back yard!  In the chart below, the boldface represents a species I have seen in my life, the grey shaded boxes represent parrots I saw on this trip within the last month.

Locations of Australian Parrots

Even though Parrots were the primary focus of the trip, I knew that these locations would also be home to other beautiful birds such as Fairy-wrens, Bowerbirds, Robins, Honey-eaters, and more!

IMG_5126The good news is that Australia is logistically a very easy country to travel in.  It’s safe, people speak English, credit cards are widely accepted and you can easily get your own rental car.  The AUD has gone down against the USD, GBP, EUR over the last few months so it costs less than it used to if you are coming from overseas.  Over the next few weeks, I will be showing you more of the birds we saw, where we stayed and how I organized the flights, accommodation and rental cars so that you too can have your own Aussie Outback adventure!

Wild Bush Budgerigar Documentary

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This documentary shows the life of wild Bush Budgies in the Lake Gregory area of Western Australia (near the border with the Northern Territory).  We won’t be going to this area on our trip in February, 2014 but we will be going to other areas where wild Budgies can be seen.

The first 11 minutes is beautiful and free from gory predation scenes which I personally don’t want to see.  If you hate predation scenes or sad death scenes, then close your eyes at:

14:05 snake crawls into nest & eats baby budgie

19:50 baby budgie drowns while trying to fledge (and the camera crew just stood around and did nothing)

22:29 falcon attack

24:45 another falcon attack

You can tell when to open your eyes when the narrator changes the subject.  I was thankfully forewarned by the comments on YouTube.  I know this is a fact of life, I just don’t want the images in my head.

Australia Land Of Parrots

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This stunning documentary of parrots in Australia was shown on local TV channels back in 2007.  I was lucky enough to stumble across it on YouTube and thought I would share it.  It’s almost an hour long so grab a snack, relax and enjoy!

You can’t help but be inspired to book a trip to watch wild parrots in Australia so head on over to my guide on getting to Australia with airline miles!

2014 – What Lies Ahead This Year?

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Last year, I asked people to resolve to see at least one new bird habitat and showed you which ones I was planning to visit.  I hope many of you accomplished this, enjoyed your trip and saw lots of beautiful, interesting birds!  I got to all the ones I had planned on plus a few extra ones thanks to a US Airways special deal.  So what do I have planned for this year?

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BIRDING AUSTRALIA

In 2014, my birding travel will focus more on Australia.  I am often asked why I don’t travel more domestically since I live in a country with 842 bird species, including over 50 parrots.  The answer to that is that I have been focusing on long-haul destinations because I have been lucky enough to get in on some very lucrative miles & points earning opportunities.   I’ve been able to afford travel to places that would normally be way out of reach.  Since miles and points are prone to devaluations, I wanted to use these miles as effectively as possible, which basically means overseas travel.

Although I have put it off a few years, 2014 is my year to see more of the fantastic country I live in and see more of our native birds!  We will be visiting 3 regions, southern Western Australia, Tasmania & outback Queensland.

February-March 2014 Tour

EDUCATION

The other thing I will be focusing on this year is education.  I will be attending two major parrot conferences.

Parrots 2014 in Brisbane

Right in my home town, no travel required-for me anyways!

World Parrot Conference in Loro Parque. Tenerife

I used US Dividend Miles, United Miles & Iberia Avios to book award travel with some very interesting stopovers.  But more about those later!  For now, just get your travel booked to Tenerife (TFN) as flights there are limited!  By the time we do this trip, US Airways will have left Star Alliance and joined One World so hopefully there will be no dramas with the trip!

THIS BLOG’S DIRECTION

I still need to start the India & Sri Lanka series from last month’s trip which should bring us up to date before the Australian trip.  Of course this will be blogged about in depth as well.  I still have some birding trips I did in the past that I haven’t blogged about so I will be getting those done as well.  I will be doing more bird profiles with “how to” instructions for seeing the bird in the wild.  I’ll also continue to keep you up to date with the miles & points world and keep you aware of any good deals that would help you create an amazing eco-tourism adventure.  Eco-Lite Mini Trips will continue with some exotic ones and some closer to (some people’s) home.

What I won’t be doing (that other miles & points blogs do) is going into depth on credit cards & manufactured spending.  I’ll let you know which credit cards can help you get that amazing trip in a reference page that will be updated for this year soon.  You will also need to read FlyerTalk to make sure you get the best deal because don’t keep up with these deals on a daily basis so you will always have to do some checking yourself.

I don’t have any affiliate marketing deals with any credit cards.  I do have the same referrals that any card-holder has for Australian Amex, USA SPG Amex, Chase Freedom & Chase Sapphire.  These give me points if you let me send you an invitation, then you can wait for your own link and invite/refer your family members.  If you are interested, post a comment here or Tweet me.

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Manufactured spend can be a good source of miles and points but it’s not without a lot of risks so I prefer to direct people to FlyerTalk if that is their interest.  I’m not much of a risk taker (with money) and I don’t want to recommend people do things I wouldn’t do myself to earn miles & points.

That about covers my plans for this year.  What are yours? *

*If the human verification is giving you trouble, please Tweet me so I know about it.

Southern Queensland Is A Bird Watcher’s Paradise

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It’s bird week, but according to Kevin and Kay Williams in Toowoomba “every day is a good day for birding!”

King Parrot

King Parrot

See full article from ABC News.

But don’t just read the articles, come and see for yourself!  The good news is that you can use frequent flier miles to get to Australia very cheaply.  I have another post with the details but please feel free to ask here in the comments about how to book the flights or how to acquire the miles at a very low cost.

Green Rosella (Platycercus caledonicus)

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The Green Rosella or Tasmanian Rosella (Platycercus caledonicus) is endemic to Tasmania and Bass Strait islands. At 37 cm (14.5 in) long it is the largest species of the Rosella genus. The male and female are generally similar in plumage, being predominantly black, green, and yellow in colour with a red band above the beak and blue cheeks; however, some females have red-orange colouration on the front of their necks. Its diet is composed of seeds, fruit, berries and flowers, as well as insects and insect larvae.

Green Rosella

If you would like to see this beauty in the wild, first you need to fly to Hobart in Tasmania.  You can use your airline miles to get to Australia.  Once there, hire a car and drive to one of these national parks.  More information about Freycinet, Mole Creek, Cradle Mountain and all of Tasmania’s national parks can be found on the Parks & Wildlife website.  Freycinet has a very impressive bird list!  Green Rosellas are also seen in parks in Hobart and Launceston.

Green Rosella habitat

LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS PARROT

World Parrot Trust

Birdlife Australia

Parks & Wildlife

Wikipedia

Birds In Backyards

VIDEO