Night Parrot of Australia What is a Night Parrot?

The Night Parrot is a small ground-dwelling nocturnal parrot found in Australia. As its name suggests, this parrot only comes out at night. Because of its secretive and nocturnal nature, the night parrot is sometimes referred to as the world's most mysterious and elusive bird.

Until very recently, it was thought to be extinct (With no confirmed sighting of it for over a hundred years). Fortunately, two birds were observed at Minga Well, Western Australia in 2005, and a very small population of these birds was rediscovered in remote parts of south-west Queensland in 2013, and subsequently, other populations have been found in Western Australia and South Australia too.

Scientific name: Pezoporus occidentalis

Night Parrot - Description What is a Night Parrot?

The night parrot, with a rather plump body and short tail, is approximately 25cm in length with a wingspan of 45cm. It has bright green feathers with black and yellow spots, streaks, and bars. The underside of its body is yellow. Males and females are similar in size and appearance. They live for about 10 years.

The night parrot is a ground-dwelling bird that shelters in dense clumps of spinifex and shrub emerging at dusk to forage for food. Because the night parrot lives in the extremely arid areas of Australia where water is in short supply, it has been suggested that its nocturnal behaviour is an adaptation to conserve water by staying hidden and protected during the blistering heat of the sun during the day. The night parrot flies low and fast.

Interestingly, recent research suggests that even though the night parrot is nocturnal, its eyesight isn't well adapted for night vision.

Night Parrot - Habitat Where Does a Night Parrot Live?

The night parrot is a ground-dwelling nocturnal parrot that lives amongst the shrub and grasslands of the arid and semi-arid interior of Australia.

The Night Parrot once lived over a vast area of the Australian Outback (orange area on map). In recent times it has only been sighted in a few remote locations in Australia. (shown as 'red' dots on the map).

This rarely seen ground-dwelling parrot lives amongst the shrub and grasslands of the arid and semi-arid interior of Australia. It hides and nests in the grasslands during the day and only comes out to forage for food at night. The birds appear to be highly nomadic, travelling as far as 100km in search of food. That is to say that they move from place to place in search of seeding spinifex grass and water. There has also been occasional sighting of these birds in bluebush, samphire and saltbush scrub-lands.

The night parrot's nest consists of a small tunnel through triodia grass or shrubs leading to a nest made of a few twigs.

Outback Australia

Night Parrot - Diet What Does a Night Parrot Eat?

The exact diet of night parrot is unknown but it is believed to feed primarily on seeds, especially that of Triodia grass (commonly referred to as spinifex). It is also thought to eat leaf matter, roots and tubers. It generally gets all its water requirements from succulent plants. During extremely dry weather it may also drink at free-standing water.

Night parrots only come out to feed after sunset and may fly as much as a 10okm or more in a night in search of food and drinking water.

Night Parrot - Reproduction Night Parrot Babies

Very little is known about the night parrot's life cycle. It is thought that they mate during the rainy sessions and that the female lays 2-4 eggs in a nest made of twigs at the end of a tunnel hidden in the spinifex grass.

Night Parrot - Threats and Predators Animal and Environmental

Until about 1880, the night parrot was quite common in the Australian outback. The exact cause of its decline to the point of near extinction is not known. It is suspected that human interactions are the major cause of the demise of the night parrot.

Introduced Predators

Humans introduced several animals that preyed on the night parrot. The first of these was the dingo, which arrived in Australia about 5,000 years ago. However, there is no proof that the dingo had any significant impact on the native night parrot populations, as these birds were still quite common at the time of European settlement.

It is thought that the drastic decline in night parrot populations coincided with the introduction of cats and foxes into Australia. These animals escaped from captivity and spread rapidly throughout the Australian Outback.

The behaviour of these rare birds makes them "sitting ducks" for introduced predators such as feral cats, foxes and to a lesser extent dingoes. It has been observed that when threatened night parrots freeze and stay motionless, hoping to elude their predators by their stillness. Unfortunately, this behaviour makes them easy targets for predators.

Environmental Factors

Environmental threats to the night parrot include habitat destruction and degradation by introduced, non-native, animals such as the rabbit, camel and livestock.

Rediscovery of the Night Parrot How the Night Parrot was Found Once More

Prior to their rediscovery, the last confirmed record of a night parrot was in 1912 when one was shot. Since then, the birds were thought to have become extinct. Fortunately, the first confirmed sighting of live parrots was made in 2005 when two or three birds were observed at Minga Well in Western Australia. The first definite proof that they were still alive occurred on 3 July 2013 when a photographer named John Young succeeded in photographing some of these birds in a remote part of Queensland.

On 4 April 2015, in South-Western Queensland, ornithologist Steve Murphy and Rachel Barr succeeded in capturing one of these birds, radio tagging it and setting it free. For some unknown reason, they named it "Pedro". They have kept the precise location of their find secret to protect the animal from poachers and harm. The Queensland government responded quickly by declaring an area of 56,000 hectares around the region where the birds were sighted as a nature reserve to protect the species.

Since this initial discovery subsequently other populations have been discovered in Western Australia and South Australia too.

Is the Night Parrot Extinct? Conservation Status of the Australian Night Parrot

Because of the night parrot's secretive nature - only coming out at night and rarely flying, their exact numbers are not known. It is estimated that only 50-250 birds exist in the wild today. They are classified as endangered.