Talking Birds April 2019 Preview

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BIRD WORDS EVERY MONTH April 2019

Moving house needs care

Falcons flying in first class

Breeding clearwing budgies

Stately Rouen ducks

Finches: Who goes with who

Italian hens back to the wild

Threat to our palm cockies

Beak and feather in many birds

Prepare birds for disaster

THIS MONTH IN YOUR MAGAZINE Australasian feathered news in brief 3 Avian vet directory 18 Aviary Marketplace 29 Bird club, avian vet listings 30 Budgies: Breeding clearwings 13 Budgies: What to expect from pairs 12 Companion birds: Eggs huge strain16 Falcons fly in first class seats 27 Fancy poultry: Stately Rouen duck 15 Finches: Compatibility the key 14

WHEN news broke about John

Young finding the night parrot in 2013 I have to confess that I was a little sceptical.

I don’t have qualifications in the areas of ornithology or conservation so I wasn’t qualified to offer a comment.

Like many others I was sucked in by Mr Young in 2006 when he claimed he’d found a new species, the blue-fronted fig parrot, but close examination by a Photoshop expert showed that his photo was of a red-fronted bird with the red section made to appear blue.

When he discovered the night parrot I thought perhaps his ways had been mended and it stayed that way until close examination of his South Australian “find” was shown to be bullshit, see adjacent story.

Professor Penny Olsen from the Australian National University is preparing a book on suspect avian finds and I’m reliably told that Mr Young will feature prominently, and so he should.

■ UPSET: It’s strange how some people express their upset and indignation when they feel they’ve been slighted and then decline the opportunity to put their side of the story.

That happened twice in regard to last month’s Talking Birds,

EDITORIAL & ADVERTISING Lloyd Marshall Telephone.............................03 5983 2566 Email................. lloyd@talkingbirds.com.au Website .............www.talkingbirds.com.au PO Box 216 Balnarring VIC 3926 Australia DEADLINES FOR ADVERTISING BOOKINGS AND COPY May 2019 edition Display advertisements.................April 13 Aviary marketplace........................April 27 SUBSCRIPTIONS Subscriptions to Talking Birds, which cost $6 a month anywhere in the world, can be arranged by filling out the subscription form on the final page of this edition and sending it together with the appropriate payment or credit card details. The form can also be found at www.talking birds.com.au COPYRIGHT Copyright for all editorial copy and photographs published in Talking Birds remains with the author or photographer and cannot be reproduced in any media without the author s/photographer s permission.

Health: Rainbows and PBDV 17 Italian chooks back in the wild 25-26 Overseas feathered news in brief 4 Parrots: Indonesian cockatoos 22 Parrots: Kakapo breeding record 21 Parrots: New home care needed 6-7 Parrots: Palm cockatoo threat 20 Parrots: Preparing for disaster 8-11 Parrots: Superb parrot hypocrisy 19 Parrots: Western ground parrot 24

the blue box where Bree Bishop and Garry Stack were less than thrilled about things I wrote about them in a story on the Parrot Society of Australia’s 2019 election of officebearers.

The pair was offered space to put their side of the story in these pages. They declined.

That’s the same approach as the one adopted by shifty German criminal, bird acquirer and dealer Martin Guth from ACTP and his Australian henchman Simon Degenhard.

They seem to think if they say nothing news of their bastardry will go away. It won’t.

■ VARIETY: There’s heaps of variety in TB this month, including what to expect when breeding budgies, how to breed beautiful clearwing budgies, falcons flying in aircraft, Rouen ducks, compatibility in finches, beak and feather disease, a good breeding year for the kakapo, preparing to relocate birds when disaster threatens, a strange tale of superb parrot conservation in the ACT, the western ground parrot, a woman with a pet chook constant companion and chooks living in snowy, free range conditions in Italy.

— Lloyd Marshall

DISCLAIMER The publisher of Talking Birds newsmagazine accepts no responsibility for the contents of advertisements submitted for publication by the newsmagazine s clients. It is the advertisers responsibility to ensure that their advertisements are honest and accurate. It is also the advertisers responsibility to ensure that any sales of birds, goods, services and products comply with the relevant legal requirements. Talking Birds and its publisher will not become involved in disputes between advertisers and people who have dealt with advertisers as a result of reading information contained in advertisements in Talking Birds newsmagazine. The publisher of Talking Birds newsmagazine accepts no liability for any dispute resulting from information contained in advertisements published in Talking Birds newsmagazine. The newsmagazine s publisher reserves the right to refuse to publish any advertisement presented for publication. Opinions expressed in editorial material and in advertisements published in Talking Birds newsmagazine are not necessarily those held by the publisher of Talking Birds newsmagazine.

Night parrot discovery fake news

THE reputation of the man who located the night parrot in 2013 has been shredded after a panel of four experts said his subsequent claims could not be verified.

When John Young claimed in 2013 to have found the elusive bird, which had not been seen for more than a century, he became a hero among bird enthusiasts.

The findings are a major embarrassment for the Australian Wildlife Conservancy, which published reports based on Mr Young’s work.

The non-profit organisation used his controversial photographs in fund-raising material to attract donations from the public.

“Due to the findings AWC is retracting records of the night parrot published by AWC,” chief executive officer Tim Allard said.

“The methods used in this work were not consistent with AWC’s usual procedures.”

Mr Young’s initial discovery of the bird was genuine, made international headlines and transformed him into a minor celebrity.

As a result of his efforts Bush Heritage bought 56,000ha of land where the bird was sighted in order to protect the population.

But Mr Young’s subsequent fieldwork raised eyebrows, with a handful of shrewd observers pointing out inconsistencies.

While employed by AWC he was said to have recorded the sound of a night parrot in South Australia’s Kalamurina Wildlife Sanctuary.

He found a feather in that location and during a visit to Queensland’s Diamantina National Park he photographed eggs allegedly belonging to the bird.

But the independent panel hired by the AWC to scrutinise his work has called into question each of those assertions.

Parrots addicted

LICENSED opium farmers in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh are facing the menace of drug-addicted parrots when crops are ripening.

Still reeling from damage to their crops from adverse weather conditions the farmers are being forced to contend with addicted parrots stealing their produce.

The birds hover over fields from day to night and when an opportunity presents itself they suck out the opium sap from the crops and some brazen birds pluck off poppy pods and fly away with them, causing permanent loss to farmers.

The panel, made up of four eminent ornithologists and conservation scientists, found there was no reliable evidence to support the claim that Mr Young had recorded the call of the night parrot.

The feather he came across in a zebra finch nest turned out to be entirely different to the one later given to the South Australian Museum for safekeeping and some of the eggs were deemed by most members of the panel to be fake The panel’s damning report erases all confirmed sightings of the night parrot on land owned by the AWC. “It’s just more fake news,” said Professor Penny Olsen from the Australian National University.

“It’s deceptive, unscientific and downright damaging.”

Professor Olsen said Mr Young’s falsified research would harm the AWC’s credibility and future fundraising efforts.

“It’s deceiving donors and grant givers by misusing the scarce conservation dollar,” she said.

The AWC, one of Australia’s biggest landowners, buys large areas of land to create sanctuaries for species that are threatened.

Ecologist Dr Stephen Murphy fears the night parrot scandal will undo all the good work the organisation has been doing.

“That would be an absolute injustice,” he said.

“To have that mission jeopardised by this one-off, isolated incident would be a real shame.”

Dr Murphy said the AWC will have to work hard to rebuild trust.

He said AWC’s biggest mistake was believing his former colleague.

■ Talking Birds contacted Mr Young for a comment. He declined that offer, saying: No thanks. People can judge me how they will.

ODD SPOT “The opium yield from one poppy flower is around 20-25 grams but these parrots feed on them 30-40 times in a day reducing productivity,” one grower said.

“Some even fly away with pods. We are already dealing with the after effects of uneven rain and now we have to bear the loss from these parrots,” the farmer said.

Farmers have urged district officials to deal with the addicted parrots but their pleas have fallen on deaf ears, they said.

PHOTO: BOB PHILPOT. COVER: MALE REGENT PARROT. SEE: INTRODUCE TO A NEW HOME CAREFULLY PAGES 6-7.

Talking Birds, April 2019 2