Local rangers in Western Australia have discovered a population of 50 night parrots, one of the most mysterious and rare bird species in Australia.
Mysterious Bird Species
In the arid interior of Australia lies one of the rarest bird species in the country: the night parrot. After being lost for over a century, a living population was rediscovered in 2013.
Until recently, the known population of night parrots in Australia numbered only a few dozen, scattered across the deserts of Queensland and Western Australia.
The night parrots shelter in grass to sleep during the day, venturing out only at night to forage, making them very difficult to detect. (Photo: Ngururrpa Rangers).
One unique and significant challenge for search efforts using audio recording devices arises from the fact that night parrot groups are dispersed and consist of very few individuals at each location. As a result, they do not have a fixed, uniform call across the species. Almost each individual night parrot has a different vocalization style, depending on how they mimic the sounds of nearby animals.
This species was once found throughout the arid lands of Australia, but their numbers declined sharply by the end of the 19th century.
There were no clear sightings of this bird for over 100 years until a dead specimen was found near Boulia in western Queensland in 1990. Another dead bird was discovered in Diamantina National Park, also in western Queensland, in 2006.
The research team set up audio recorders and camera traps for their search. (Photo: Ngururrpa Rangers).
In 2013, a small population was discovered by naturalist John Young in southwestern Queensland. That area is now a wildlife sanctuary.
Night parrots are notoriously difficult to detect. They burrow into dense shrubs and hide there during the day, emerging at night to forage.
In Indigenous culture, there are stories where mothers tell their children that the call of the night parrot is the sound of a spirit and warns them not to stray from the camp.
Discovery of a Population of Up to 50
A group of local rangers and scientists made a groundbreaking discovery. By using audio recorders to search for traces of this mysterious bird species, they persevered for 7 years starting in 2018.
As mentioned, each night parrot has a nearly unique vocalization, making the use of audio recorders quite challenging. The team had to analyze each individual sound across 31 different areas from sunset to sunrise. Fortunately, despite their varied calls, they all fall within a certain frequency range that can be referenced.
A population of up to 50 extremely rare night parrots has been discovered. (Photo: Ngururrpa Rangers).
When they detected unusual sounds resembling the calls of a nocturnal animal within that frequency range, they would prioritize that area as it might be the night parrot mimicking. They then set up camera traps to confirm and document images.
Moreover, because each individual has a different call, they were able to count the number of night parrot individuals in 17 out of the 31 monitored areas.
Through this work, they discovered the largest known population of night parrots in the world, amounting to 50 individuals residing in the Great Sandy Desert of Western Australia, on land managed by the Ngururrpa people.
Lightning strikes can inadvertently incinerate sleeping night parrots. (Photo: Ngururrpa Rangers).
The team’s camera traps also revealed that the biggest threat to night parrots is domestic cats. These are skilled hunters and extremely cunning in the night.
Additionally, through satellite image data analysis, the team noted that wildfires also pose a significant danger to this bird species. The areas they inhabit consist of highly flammable shrubs. Fires can obliterate both the shrubs and the sleeping night parrots hiding within them.
