Second Night Parrot egg discovered in the Kimberley

Nguruupa Rangers discover second ever Night Parrot egg  in the Kimberley

The Night Parrot has always been an enigmatic species. Its nocturnal habits, its inhospitable habitats in remote locations and its cryptic nature have all combined to make it a difficult bird to observe; this was likely exacerbated by the fact that it was probably never especially common anyway. All of this presumably led to a live Night Parrot not being recorded reliably – though there were any number of unconfirmed reports and possible ‘near misses’ – for the best part of a century.  

It also meant that little was known about the behaviour and ecology of the species, beyond odd observations in the notebooks of the few people back in the day who were lucky enough to have seen one.  

That is, until their sensational rediscovery in western Queensland in 2013 – after the species was presumed extinct for around a century. 

In the years since, intensive research of the species at its discovery site, now known as Pullen Pullen Reserve, has provided the knowledge which has led to the discovery of other populations. Indeed, aided by information gleaned from the parrots in Queensland, another population was subsequently discovered in the Ngururrpa Indigenous Protected Area in the eastern Pilbara region of Western Australia. This area, in the Great Sandy Desert, is thought to support the bulk of Australia’s population of Night Parrots. 

And the more observations there are, the more we can discover. 

Because of the long hiatus in sightings, there are great gaps in what we know about Night Parrots. However, concerted research since 2013 has revealed much about what makes the species tick. This has led to an exponential increase in our understanding of the Night Parrot’s ecology and behaviour, but, nevertheless, there’s still so much we don’t know. 

For example, until recently, there was only a single Night Parrot egg known to science, but, thanks to the Ngururrpa Rangers of the Pilbara, there are now two! 

After finding a series of Night Parrot tunnels spinifex on Country in the Ngururrpa IPA in September last year, the Rangers set up an overnight camera to monitor any activity occurring in the tunnels, but it was quickly realised that it had been abandoned.  

But within, there was a single, white egg laid by a Night Parrot. Although it was subsequently found to be infertile, the egg has the potential to add useful information to our bank of knowledge about Night Parrots – and is a promising sign that the once-thought-extinct bird’s population could be starting to recover.

The more we know about Australia’s threatened species, the more achievable it is to protect them into the future.