Ground Parrots Galore

The Eastern Ground Parrot is generally a difficult bird to see well, and even more difficult to photograph. Most of us have had to make do with ordinary flight images as a flushed parrot flies swiftly over the heath before disappearing. At the end of the breeding season – about now – the parrots are more readily seen along roads as they appear to feed on seeding grasses along their edges. But still they are hard to nail down.

Not so this year. Multiple observers have obtained top-rate images of very close birds along the renowned pump station track at Cooloola, arguably the best site on mainland Australia to see the species. I began my sojourn just after sunrise at 5am on 25 November. Conditions were cloudy and cool. As is my custom, I walked about 1.5km of the pump station track from the forest edge and a shorter distance along King Bore Road. I flushed a total of three ground parrots and a King Quail, but all were the usual brief flight views.

After doing the walk in both directions, I decided to try it again. This time was very different, although I was simply retracing my steps. I had excellent views of four different parrots within 400 metres of each other perched and on the ground; three of them allowed extraordinary close approach, as these images show. All four were juveniles. They spent a good deal of time walking or running on the ground, often reaching up to feed on seed. They also frequently clambered through and across the heath, stopping and feeding on various seeding plants. Occasionally a bird would utter a short grating call. They clearly were well-camouflaged but these particular individuals were not hard to find, the second time around at least. The key is to walk slowly along the road, carefully checking the verges where they meet the vegetation. I watched these birds for more than an hour.

In close to 50 years of watching ground parrots, I’ve seen them very occasionally and briefly perched on bushes. I’ve not had an encounter approaching this one.

Eastern Ground Parrot found dead at Noosa

A dead Eastern Ground Parrot (above) has been found at Noosaville on the Sunshine Coast. The bird is one of just a handful of this threatened species that survives in Queensland outside of the Cooloola section of the Great Sandy World Heritage Area. The juvenile parrot, probably recently fledged, was found dead in the garden of Colin Eden in Cooyar Street. Colin says it’s not possible to say how the Eastern Ground Parrot died. It may have been killed by a cat or hit a window while flying. Where the bird died is adjacent to an area of wallum heath - known to be frequented in the past by the species - between Ernie Creek Road and the Noosa Junction shopping centre, though recent surveys have failed to find them there. A small number of Eastern Ground Parrots – probably fewer than 20 – were thought to survive in the area of wallum heath in Noosa National Park and Mt Coolum National Park that extends from Noosa in the north to Marcoola in the south.

An additional ground parrot population of about 15 birds was hanging on in a patch of heath protected by the fence around Sunshine Coast Airport. However, that population is endangered by construction underway for the new airport runway; we don’t know if it survives today. Single birds from this population were hit by vehicles nearby in 2013 and again in 2015. Ground parrots also appear to have gone from known sites including near Mt Emu and Mt Coolum. The savage fires late last year around the Sunshine Coast presumably also had a serious impact on ground parrot populations in their wallum heath habitat (below).

Several sites could be surveyed for Eastern Ground Parrot by interested birders on the Sunshine Coast listening for their distinctive calls at dusk. There is a track crossing the heath behind the police station in Langura Street, Noosaville; this is the area where the dead bird was found recently. Heath behind Sunshine Beach State High School can be accessed from Girraween Court and Grasstree Court; I’ve heard them here several times. I’ve heard them in a couple of spots behind Marcus Beach; check Google Maps for access points to the heath. I’ve also heard them from Woodland Drive, Peregian Beach, and from outside the Sunshine Coast Airport boundary. The most likely causes for the regional decline in numbers are predation by foxes and cats, and habitat rendered unsuitable by fire or, ironically, absence of fire. Heath has been allowed in some places to grow unchecked and unburned for many years, where it is too tall and thick now for the species. It's also likely that the species needs much larger areas of heath, like Cooloola, to survive.

Sunshine Coast Spring Sightings: Red-backed Buttonquail, Barn Swallow, Large-tailed Nightjar, Nesting Square-tailed Kite

The latest flurry of excellent sightings from the Sunshine Coast-Cooloola region in recent weeks includes Red-backed Buttonquail, Barn Swallow, Large-tailed Nightjar, Southern Emuwren, Lewin’s Rail and nesting Square-tailed Kite. The Red-backed Buttonquail was first spotted by Michael Dawson at the beginning of a walking trail from Landsborough to Ewen Maddock Dam. At the time of writing, it is still being seen along about 100m of trail, without seemingly moving from this small patch.

I’ve seen this species several times around the Sunshine Coast but always in tall, wet coastal grassland. The habitat at Landsborough is a narrow strip of blady grass adjoining the trail in coastal eucalypt woodland; habitat I would not have considered ideal. The remarkable thing about this bird it that it regularly leaves the blady grass to feed on the path and its edges at all the times of the day, allowing extraordinary viewing and photographic opportunities for such a normally cryptic species. Its platelets along both sides of the track are everywhere; image of a platelet with car keys below.

The Barn Swallow was found at Rainbow Beach by Gus Daley and again, at the time of writing, the bird is still present. It perches on overhead wires in the heart of the township, roosting with Welcome Swallows and Tree Martins. The swallow’s presence is far from predictable, however. I failed on my first attempt, and it took 3.5 hours to see it the second time around. The bird appears to be actively feeding early in the morning. It comes to roost mid-to-late morning, and may stay half an hour or a couple of minutes before flying off again. Barn Swallow is very rare in south-east Queensland; this record is evidently the fourth for the region.

From Rainbow Beach I returned home via Double Island Point, photographing a Brown Noddy there, and Teewah Beach.

Barn Swallow twitches aside, I’ve spent time in the Cooloola-Tin Can Bay area. I photographed a male Southern Emuwren at Cooloola at the same spot I photographed it in 2018. While I and others often saw the species in the area in the 1970s, records have been few and far between since then, until the last few years. It is now encountered regularly but can be difficult to track down. I saw a total of 8 Eastern Ground Parrots during two visits but no sign of Brush Bronzewing.

I took the kayak up Snapper Creek in Tin Can Bay. I heard a Black Bittern but failed to see it. I did see a nice pair of Shining Flycatchers.

Large-tailed Nightjar occurs at the southern end of its extensive range on the Sunshine Coast, where it occurs at two sites: Yandina Creek Wetland and the nearby Maroochy Wetlands Sanctuary. I had tried three times to photograph calling birds before eventually snaring a rear-end photograph at the latter site just before dawn.

A pair of Square-tailed Kites is nesting in Tewantin National Park in Tinbeerwah. The species has nested in the area several times in recent years and is known to loyally stick to nesting territories, while changing nests regularly. An adult and a juvenile in advanced plumage were around the nest during my visit. Other observers have reported an active nest in Koala Park, Nambour.

I’d heard Lewin’s Rail several times this year but managed photographs just recently after the first heavy rains of the season. A bird at Peregian Beach showed very nicely indeed.

Other good birds in the area included White-winged Triller at Parklakes. The count continues for the 2020 BirdLife Australia Sunshine Coast photographic competition. My tally stands at 305 species photographed with images of three others – Bridled Tern, Red-chested Buttonquail and King Quail – not making the grade.

Amongst the flurry of feathers has been a house move from our home of 11.5 years at Ninderry to another home in the hills on the western fringe of Nambour, overlooking the town and surrounding valleys. A white phase Grey Goshawk flew overhead on our last day at Ninderry.

It’s good to see old friends again at the new diggings, with White-headed Pigeons quickly taking their place at the relocated feeder.