Yellow-naped Amazon (Amazona auropalliata)

Personality Profile by Sally Blanchard

I started out with Double Yellow-headed Amazons, because I knew a couple, Bill and Wilma Fisher, who were gathering these parrots to breed them way back in 1976.  I helped them find several parrots from people who had purchased wild-caught birds and had no idea what to do with them.  One day I got a call from a woman who said she had a big green parrot that had belonged to her son and she needed to "get rid of it."  I went over to her home and saw the first Yellow-naped I had ever seen.

This Yellow-naped was huge and was as wild as any parrot I have ever met, but I didn’t know a lot about handling parrots at the time.  Somehow or other I managed to get him in a cardboard box. I headed straight for my friend’s house and asked them if they were interested in the Amazon.  I was hoping they were, because I really didn’t know what I would do with the parrot if I had to keep him.  I was amazed when Wilma opened the box and the yellow-nape stepped right onto her hand.  They took him and eventually found him a girlfriend.

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A little bit of Magic in my life!

by Jane Clark

I have only ever had dogs, cats, rats and even a ferret, as life companions – all wonderful, but when my last dog died I felt I could not replace him at all with another dog.  As I was coming up to retirement and living on my own I did feel a strong need to acquire another presence in the house, a companion to have fun with, for my twilight years.

Years ago we inherited a family budgie, a sweet little chap who used to watch me brush my teeth in the morning, when I was very young.  I must admit I did enjoy letting him out to frolic about in the living room, however, I didn't want another budgie, nor a cockatiel.  Si, I was beginning to think parrots!

It was the wild birds outside that tuned me into birds really.  They helped me through a rough patch in life by their constant communication and they didn't seem a bit perturbed by my presence in the garden.  When the food ran out, they would let me know by fluttering about at the window or perch on a garden chair and ask for attention.  They would also certainly let me know when a predator had arrived in my tranquil garden.

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Edible delights found in the trees

by Dave Coles

As well as wild plants and herbs which provide flower heads and green leaves, and hedgerow shrubs which provide berries and nuts, and of course the willow tree which are all greatly enjoyed by our parrots, many different indigenous trees can also provide healthy and enriching foods too.  Here Dave sets out what can safely be collected for our parrots, and from which trees.

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Observing the New Range Corellas

by Guy Hull

The summer sun in far western New South Wales arrived early and left late, its lingering fiery departure calling the local parrots to water, and discomforted by my presence and the ever present predators stalking the unwary, the birds’ evening waterings were brief and jittery affairs.  Little family squadrons of Bourke’s Parakeets flitted in from the mulga trees away in the red country and glide down to the water’s edge to take brief furtive gulps before wheeling away into the hot, golden light on whistling wings, piping kik kik, kik kik, while the metallic chillik chillik announced the buoyant arrival of parties of Crimsonwings, emerald green, blue, black and red jewels that landed right at the water’s edge to take their flighty refreshment in hasty head-raised gulps.

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