Presumed extinct, night parrot colony uncovered near Lake Eyre

A SIMPLE feather found in the lining of a bird’s nest near Lake Eyre has stunned the nation’s scientists and rewritten a part of our state’s history.

Jade Gailberger

The AdvertiserSEPTEMBER 14, 20178:19AM

A SIMPLE feather found in the lining of a bird’s nest near Lake Eyre has stunned the nation’s scientists and rewritten a part of our state’s history.

The feather led to the discovery of a night parrot population — a bird presumed extinct with no recorded sighting in South Australia for more than a century.

It is one of Australia’s most mysterious birds. Australian Wildlife Conservancy ecologists made the discovery in July after using a helicopter to fly over 600km of land in search of its prospective habitat.

Conservancy chief Atticus Fleming said: “While it’s been rediscovered after effectively having gone missing for 100 years, its probably cryptic as much as it is endangered.”

The first sign of the night parrot occurred during an annual ecological audit of the Kalamurina Wildlife Sanctuary in 2016, when a camera trap picked up a shape replicating the bird.

Ecologist John Young, who rediscovered the Night Parrot in Queensland a few years earlier, knew the shape was not clear enough to be certain, and looked at historical records.

In 1883, night parrots had been recorded in similar samphire — plants associated with water — habitat near Lake Eyre.

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