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.