Bill Naylor provides an insight into this reliable, colourful and very underrated parakeet

The docile accommodating nature of Bourke’s parakeet makes them an ideal first bird for the novice, and for children. In preference to any other parrot, they are also a first choice as aviary colleagues for finches or quail. They are named after a governor of New South Wales and not as usually thought after, Burke of the Burke and Wills ill-fated Australian expedition. Dark eyes and feathering in front of the eyes indicate these are crepuscular birds (twilight loving) and are often active before and after sunset.

Anybody with an interest in parrots, who finds themselves in the Australian outback after nightfall and sees or hears parrots, automatically imagines themselves on the front page of a newspaper with their name and smug face linked with a discovery of the Australia’s rarest bird, the nocturnal Night Parrot.

Some years ago, I was in southern Queensland after dark just off a highway when the unmistakable shape of two small parrots appeared on the side of the road illuminated in the moonlight. Then two more joined them. Recent rain had created run off pools at the roadside and this is what had attracted them. Night Parrots are said to come to roadside pools after dark to drink, but more common, so do Bourke’s. Alas the musical twittering calls left no doubt there was no need to hold the front page. For once, I was disappointed to see wild Bourke’s.

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