98) Interlude with color

An Australian King Parrot (one of the girls!)

The Rainbow Jungle is an Australian Parrot breeding centre near Kalibarri in Western Australia. Advertised as "Australia's most beautiful parrot habitat," Nancy was suckered in. Where else could we see so many species of parrots up close and personal? Certainly we don't stand a chance of seeing too many of these in the wild (although we have been fortunate to see a few, even some of our "local" birds are housed here).

We weren't disappointed--the birds here are dazzlingly beautiful. So much color and so many different colors, on so many different birds! And we do have to say it was an incredibly pleasant place, for what amounts to be a bird zoo. There were burbling water features and tropical gardens, and the "largest free-flight parrot aviary" in Australia. It seemed very clean, and all the birds seemed well-fed as as happy as they could be. We hope all the birds were obtained legally, it seemed like a reputable operation. With more and more birds becoming endangered, maybe these breeding centres are going to be essential, if they can maintain genetic diversity.

Dirk took all these pictures in the free-flight aviary or they were caged birds. Not all of these are native Australian birds. And this is just a small selection of the variety of birds present.

I used the Rainbow Jungle website for identifications and material for some of the descriptions,
http://www.webparrots.com/
http://rainbowjunglekalbarri.com/

Also Pizzey and Knight's "Birds of Australia" book.









An Australian Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo. These exotic-looking birds are widely distributed in Australia (although we have never seen one in the wild, yet).
















An Australian Golden-Shouldered Parrot. These endangered birds are endemic to the Cape York Peninsula in Northern Australia, where they live in grasslands. They nest in a cavity at the end of a narrow tunnel in termite mounds. Their habitat has been taken over by cattle grazing, and fire regimes (too frequent burning) that do not allow native grasses to regenerate.












An Australian Hooded Parrot, similar in appearance to the Golden-Shouldered Parrot. These birds are confined to the Top End of the Northern Territory. They also nest in termite mounds, and are facing similar habitat destruction (cattle and fire).











A Sun Conure Parrot, these birds are found in Central and South America. They are said to be friendly and peaceful birds.
















An Australian Scarlet-Chested Parrot. These little parrots live inland in desert southern Australia, in the mallee (eucalypt) and mulga (acacia) scrubland. It appears they obtain most of their water from dew or succulent plants, as they are not often seen near water.


















An Australian Superb Parrot, these birds live in central New South Wales. They nest near water, in the hollows of river red gums, and feed on the ground in grassy woodlands and on blossoms of acacia and eucalypts.















An Australian Purple-Crowned Lorikeet. These little birds live in the southern coastal area of Australia. They are nectar feeders, and follow the flowering of the mallees.
















(I think) Another Australian Purple-Crowned Lorikeet.


















A mischievious looking Black-Headed Caique, native to northern South America. These "delightful" little birds are popular for pets as they are quite sociable.












An Australian Red-Capped Parrot. We saw some of these birds in Southwest Australia. They are believed to be the most ancient of Australian parrot species, unrelated to other Australian parrots. The fruit industry considers these birds to be pests, as their bills are specialised to remove seeds from fruit, making them expert at taking advantage of the orchards for dining.















An Australian Eastern Rosella. These birds are one of our local birds, they live in southeast Australia and Tasmania. Their likeness has been used on a logo to advertise Arnott's bikkies (cookies) for over 100 years. Apparently, they like to raid orchards.


















An Indian Alexandrine Parakeet. Supposedly named for the captured birds the men from Alexander the Great's army brought back from the Indian subcontinent.

















An Australian Little Lorikeet with food on his face. These birds a quite small, weighing less than 50 grams. Although they live in East/Southeast Australia, we have not seen any of these birds. Apparently, they are difficult to see as they usually stay high in the tree-tops.












A magnificently colored Crimson-Winged Parrot from North/East/Northeast Australia. These green on these birds is virtually fluorescent--they simply glow...



















Crimson-Winged Parrot.

















The central birds displayed in this stained glass window are a female (red and blue) and male (green) Electus Parrots. It would be easy to think these are two different species of birds, they are both so colorful! They live in tropical forests in Cape York Peninsula (north Queensland) and the Solomons, PNG, and eastern Indonesia.