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So lucky! King Parrots and Eastern Rosellas come to visit
Two days ago, a couple of Eastern Rosellas dropped by. The next day, I was getting ready to write this blog post when two King Parrots came visiting. We’re so lucky, to have such beautiful birds in the area.
Eastern Rosellas
It’s quite odd: we have visits from two of these little parrots at around this time every year. The pattern is always the same: I hear them twittering, and lean out of the window. A male perches on our telephone line, or on a branch near by, and gives a little show for his lady friend. The show consists of some twittering, and bit of feather fluffing and scratching, and some wing shuffling. Then, after a few minutes they fly away.
Eastern Rosellas are medium-sized parrots, measuring about 30cm from head to tail. This is the male:
![](https://sydneybirder.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/rosella-male-img_4918.jpg?w=1024)
Here he’s in the middle of a wing shuffle:
![](https://sydneybirder.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/rosella-male-img_4922.jpg?w=1024)
The female looks on:
![](https://sydneybirder.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/rosella-female-img_4919.jpg?w=1024)
Common name: Eastern Rosella
Scientific name: Platycercus eximius
Approximate length: 30 cm
Date spotted: 19 February 2024 (summer)
Location: Allambie Heights, NSW, Australia
King Parrots
Sitting in the lounge the next afternoon, I heard a soft thunk and then an inquisitive chirp from the veranda. A female King Parrot perched on the window sill, looking in to see what was happening:
![](https://sydneybirder.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/king-parrot-female-img_4928.jpg?w=1024)
The male sat on a branch close by, keeping watch:
![](https://sydneybirder.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/king-parrot-male-img_4944.jpg?w=1024)
At 44cm from head to tail, King Parrots are quite a bit larger than the Eastern Rosellas (30cm). The birds stayed for around 15 minutes. Of course, I talked to them, as you do. The female let me get within a couple of metres.
![](https://sydneybirder.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/king-parrot-female-img_4932.jpg?w=1024)
She was quite happy to turn her back on me and check out the goings on outside:
![](https://sydneybirder.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/king-parrot-female-img_4938.jpg?w=1024)
At the start of this video, the female perches on the window sill, peering in. I then find the male outside the window. The view judders a bit, as I need to kneel down to get the male in view. A cockatoo squawks as it flies past:
In the next video, the female is perched on the window sill looking outwards. If you turn up the volume, you’ll hear her soft chirps at around 6 to 12 seconds into the video. Then I manoeuvred carefully around some obstacles on the veranda, and moved the camera to outside the window. Now you can see the female’s head peering out at the bottom of the view, and the male perched on a branch higher up (and also reflected in the window pane). An Australian Raven wails. The camera pans out to show the view.
It felt like a huge privilege to be able to chat to these quiet, majestic birds.
Eventually, the female flew out onto a branch:
![](https://sydneybirder.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/king-parrot-female-outside-img_4941.jpg?w=1024)
Both birds stuck around for a while. Maybe they were enjoying the view! Then they swooped away to grace another house or tree.
Common name: Australian King Parrot
Scientific name: Alisterus scapularis
Approximate length: 44 cm
Date spotted: 20 February 2024 (summer)
Location: Allambie Heights, New South Wales, Australia
3 parrots on one walk
A few days ago I went for a walk and saw three different types of parrots all within a few paces of each other. How amazing is that!
First up, a trio of King Parrots. Two were males, the other a female. This is one of the males:
![](https://sydneybirder.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/king-parrot-male-img_1954-cropped.jpg?w=1024)
King Parrots are quite large, at 44 cm from head to tail. The females have a lot more green in their colouring. I think they’re prettier than the males, with their softer shading:
![](https://sydneybirder.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/king-parrot-female-img_1941-cropped.jpg?w=1024)
This video shows all three of the birds enjoying the flowers of a Grevillea bush. First you see the two males together. Then one of them flies over to join the female on the other side of the bush:
In the trees around the parrots, the smaller Rainbow Lorikeets chattered and scolded. Here’s one in a more contemplative mood than most:
![](https://sydneybirder.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/lorikeet-img_1959-cropped.jpg?w=1024)
One of them stood still for a while to examine me, before launching itself in my direction then swerving at the last moment as they are wont to do:
At the next tree, a group of Sulphur-crested Cockatoos examined a tree hollow. Perhaps a good place to raise a family? But competition is fierce!
Here’s one of the cockatoos making a point about ownership, or perhaps just being its usual excited self:
![](https://sydneybirder.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/cockatoos-img_1967-cropped.jpg?w=1024)
The walk itself is lovely, starting in Balgowlah and winding along the coast of Sydney Harbour, with bushland and forest on one side:
![](https://sydneybirder.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/parrots-background-forest-img_1986.jpg?w=1024)
And pretty views of the waters of Sydney Harbour on the other side:
![](https://sydneybirder.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/parrots-background-sea-img_1987.jpg?w=1024)
The birds:
Common name: Australian King Parrot
Scientific name: Alisterus scapularis
Approximate length: 44 cm
Common name: Rainbow Lorikeet
Scientific name: Trichoglossus haematodus
Approximate length: 30 cm
Common name: Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
Scientific name: Cacatua galerita
Approximate length: 50 cm
Date spotted: 26 November 2022 (spring)
Location: Near Forty Baskets beach, Sydney Harbour, New South Wales, Australia: 33°48’03.2″S 151°16’07.2″E
King Parrots add a splash of colour to my garden
Two King Parrots have been flying around the neighbourhood for the last few days. I often hear their piercing whistle. On Sunday, they spent about fifteen minutes on a tree above our terrace. No need to go looking for them. They came to us!
This is the male:
And here’s the female:
They’re on a Scribbly Gum. This wider shot gives you more of an idea of the environment:
We encourage indigenous vegetation in our garden, which means that many birds come visiting! Our garden forms a way point on their route from one nature park to another.
Common name: Australian King Parrot
Scientific name: Alisterus scapularis
Approximate length: 44 cm
Date spotted: 15 March 2020 (late summer)
Location: Allambie Heights, New South Wales, Australia
King Parrot on neighbour’s tree
A high-pitched whistle drew me to the window early on Friday morning. A King Parrot perched on a nearby tree to take stock of the neighbourhood.
Here’s a zoomed-in view of the same photo:
Common name: Australian King Parrot
Scientific name: Alisterus scapularis
Approximate length: 44 cm
Date spotted: 6 July 2018 (Winter)
Location: Allambie Heights, New South Wales, Australia
Sharing a treetop shower with King Parrots
This was one of those magical moments that happen when you walk in the Aussie bush. I was strolling along under the canopy of tall gum trees…
… when I heard a swooshing and clattering of wings. I looked up, just in time to receive a spattering of large droplets on my face.
Oops, I thought, some bird had a little accident.
But then it happened again. And I saw this face looking down from high in a leafy cluster:
Looking around, I saw four or five other birds – all Australian King Parrots.
(The birds were very high up indeed. My camera’s zoom has done a good job, though some of the images are a little fuzzy.)
They were swooping through the wet clusters of leaves at the top of the trees, then coming to rest for a good grooming session.
And I was lucky enough to share the resulting shower of droplets!
Here’s a female King Parrot. It’s interesting how short her tail is in comparison with the male birds. It’s perhaps a trick of perspective:
Common name: Australian King Parrot
Scientific name: Alisterus scapularis
Approximate length: 44 cm
Date spotted: 1 April 2018 (Autumn)
Location: Manly Dam National Park, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’51.3″S 151°14’52.3″E
King Parrots on the pavement
A pair of King Parrots surprised me today. They were quietly feeding on a grassy pavement as I walked by. At first they took a careful look at me, then they decided I was harmless and went back to their browsing. The photos aren’t great quality, because I had only the camera on my mobile phone with me.
The male of the pair has a red head and chest, and dark green on his back. The female bird has a green head and softer red colouring on her chest. The video shows them feeding quietly then flying off with a characteristic chirp.
It wasn’t me that scared them away, but rather a big bird flying overhead. The big scary bird turned out to be just a currawong, so the parrots came back quite quickly. Here they are together:
Here’s the male, showing the pretty colouring and markings on his back:
Common name: Australian King Parrot
Scientific name: Alisterus scapularis
Approximate length: 44 cm
Date spotted: 7 July 2017 (Winter)
Location: Allambie Heights, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’13.2″S 151°15’41.1″E
King Parrots on my commute
Not many people in the world are lucky enough to be able to say this: I bumped into a couple of King Parrots on my way home from work the other day.
We see a few different varieties of parrots around the neighbourhood. King Parrots aren’t a very common sight – I see them maybe two or three times a year. One of their charming characteristics is that they’re always in pairs. See one, and the other isn’t far away.
These two were investigating some seeds on the ground. They let me get quite close, and flew off when I was about a metre away.
Common name: Australian King Parrot
Scientific name: Alisterus scapularis
Approximate length: 44 cm
Date spotted: 5 October 2016
Season: Spring
Location: Allambie Heights, New South Wales, Australia
Approximate latitude/longitude: 33°46’13.2″S 151°15’41.1″E
King Parrot in spring splendour
This splendid King Parrot is perched high in a tree. Only the power of my Canon zoom brought it into clear sight.
Another shot, after the bird moved to shadier spot:
Common name: Australian King Parrot
Scientific name: Alisterus scapularis
Approximate length: 44 cm
Date spotted: 14 September 2014
Season: Spring
Location: Manly Dam National Park, New South Wales, Australia
Approximate latitude/longitude: 33°46’50.2″S, 151°14’54.5″E
A King Parrot comes to call
This Australian King Parrot dropped in for a visit this afternoon. He hung around for a while, exploring the trees around our house and making his piercing whistle, “Eeeeeep”. King Parrots are fairly large birds, bigger and more dramatic in appearance than the Rainbow Lorikeets we see more often.
This was my first view of the bird, before I zoomed in with the camera:
He moved to another tree:
Where I got a shot of his back too:
Common name: Australian King Parrot
Scientific name: Alisterus scapularis
Approximate length: 44 cm
Date spotted: 30 April 2014
Season: Autumn
Location: Allambie Heights, New South Wales, Australia
Approximate latitude/longitude: 33°44’15.2″S, 151°18’44.1″E