Red-winged Parrots.

This post is for World Bird Wednesday.

I often hear Red-winged Parrots (Aprosmictus erythropterus) flying over my place but they seldom come down into any of the trees. The other day I heard one - then saw it fly down into a Grevillea bush. This particular Grevillea bush had almost finished flowering and had set seed. The Red-winged Parrots are seed eaters and these seeds must have been just right to their taste! I went closer as carefully as I could and there were two of them in the bushes. I stayed down there for nearly an hour trying for photos where the birds were not half hidden among the branches.
Finally one of the birds hopped down onto the fence - unfortunately in the shade and with a background of my neighbor's shade house. It looked at me as carefully as I was looking at it.
It sat and ate seeds and used its left foot to do this - in typical parrot fashion!
Finally it reached down towards some seed pods lower down and I could get a good look at the feathers on its back. The color was rather splotchy - only just beginning to get the dark color of the mature male.
Then the second bird hopped down to the same place and this one had the typical color of a mature male.
I kept waiting and taking photos and finally it hopped up higher into the bush and into the sunshine. There were some branches and leaves in front of it but the sunshine really showed off the colors beautifully.
I still didn't get the "perfect" photo - one without anything in front of the bird and in full sunshine! - but it was worth waiting for what I did get!

Red-winged Parrot

I frequently hear Red-winged Parrots flying over my place but they seldom come down. Maybe this is a good thing as a friend who lives only a block away was telling me what a mess they are making of the fruit on her trees. The other morning this beautiful male sat briefly in a tree at the back of my yard. I moved slowly closer and it didn't seem too worried. However, as soon as Misty my dog came around the shed it started watching her. At first it just turned its head but within a few moments the whole body was twisted around and watching the dog which was now under the tree. Parrots are so inquisitive!
This is a photo of a female Red-winged Parrot taken some time ago. The juveniles are a very similar color to the females.
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Parrots

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I was about to post about what a lucky day yesterday was - I finally saw and photographed a male Red-winged Parrot. However, it has turned into two lucky days in a row!
Some weeks ago I photographed a female Red-winged Parrot but there was no male with her. Last night I heard the sound of parrots in my grevillia bushes and when I went to look it was a whole family of Red-winged Parrots. I got good close looks at the male this time and was very pleased to get some good photos also.

Male Red-winged Parrot - and like all parrots he is climbing in and around and over.

Juvenile Red-winged Parrot - the sounds of a juvenile demanding food are unmistakable.

Tonight I again heard parrots in the backyard and once again it sounded like juveniles demanding food from their parents. I could see green in the bushes but when I got close enough I realized that this time it was Australian King Parrots. They are green colored but with much more red on them. This time they were sitting up in my banana palms and moving in and out of the late afternoon shadows. There were a number of birds - I would guess again a family group but I only managed photos of the male and a juvenile.

Male Australian King Parrot.

Juvenile Australian King Parrot. The Juvenile is very similar to the female in colouring but the eye colour in
the juvenile is brown and in the female is yellow.