As regular CFZ-watchers will know, for some time Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men and a regular segment on On The Track... particularly about out-of-place birds and rare vagrants. There seem to be more and more bird stories from all over the world hitting the news these days so, to make room for them all - and to give them all equal and worthy coverage - she has set up this new blog to cover all things feathery and Fortean.

Wednesday 13 August 2014

Secretive parrot under Perth Zoo surveillance

Perth Zoo's most recent arrivals are so secretive their keepers are using an elaborate CCTV set-up to figure out what they eat, with the bigger goal of breeding the rare birds.

The Western ground parrot, one of only five ground-dwelling parrots in the world, is on the brink of extinction with fewer than 140 believed to be left in the wild.

Three weeks ago, seven of the birds were transferred from a secluded enclosure on Western Australia's south coast, where they were being studied, to Perth Zoo.

Australian wildlife supervisor Arthur Ferguson said the parrots were highly active in "the twilight zone" before staff were on site but were otherwise very shy, so keepers relied heavily on CCTV to monitor the birds' behaviour.

"So little is known about ground parrots we're having to figure out a lot about them as we go," Mr Ferguson said.


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