Night Parrot records from Diamantina National Park

The critically endangered Night Parrot (image above by John Young) has been found in at least three sites in Queensland’s Diamantina National Park where they were recorded earlier by north Queensland naturalist John Young. The revelation, in a 2019 report to the Australian Wildlife Conservancy, raises questions about suggestions by authorities that there is no evidence of the bird being resident in the park. Young was sacked from his job in September 2018 as a senior ecologist with the AWC amid allegations that he fabricated evidence of Night Parrot records in Diamantina National Park and in Kalamurina Wildlife Sanctuary in South Australia. The AWC said it was retracting all its Night Parrot records from Diamantina National Park and other sites. In a report to the AWC in June 2019 - eight months after Young’s sacking - researchers Nick Leseberg, Steve Murphy and James Watson reported that song meters set up in the northern section of the park had confirmed the presence of Night Parrots.

Young (above) famously took the first photographs of a Night Parrot in 2013 in what is now the Pullen Pullen Reserve, which adjoins the northern boundary of Diamantina National Park. The bird photographed was also the first confirmed sighting of a live Night Parrot for about a century. The 2019 report shows that automated recording units (ARUs) were set up at 20 sites in the national park in April 2018. “Definite Night Parrot calls were detected on two ARUs during the April survey period, and one ARU during the August survey period,” the report says. “Possible Night Parrot calls were detected on one additional ARU during the April survey period, and three additional ARUs in the August survey period.” At one site, according to the report, there was “definite” recording of “multiple calls over multiple nights”. This site is just a few kilometres from where Young photographed his 2013 parrot (below). Calls detected were one-note and two-note whistles, hollow whistles, and on one occasion a pair of croak calls.

“The short duration of most of the calling periods, and the two main call types, suggest a pair of birds moving through,” the report says. At two other sites, there were “definite” recordings of call events. At a further four sites there were possible recordings, including one of multiple calls. “These detections provide evidence that Night Parrots are using the eastern section of the park,” the report says. “Although no long-term stable roost sites were detected, these results suggest it is likely that Night Parrots are roosting and breeding on Diamantina National Park.”

Given that a dead Night Parrot was found in the same part of the park in 2006 (above), the outcome confirms that parrots have been using the eastern section of the park “presumably continually for the past 13 years”. The AWC has not released the report.