Of Galahs and other parrots.

Australia is justifiably famous for its parrots. I'm lucky enough to visit here almost annually but its only since retirement I've managed to do more birding!  A lot of the commoner parrots and lorikeets are common garden visitors but they still make me smile when they turn up.

The commonest ones we see here are the Galahs. A gaudy confection of pink & grey that fly round making a racket or can be seen feeding in local paddocks. Sulphur -crested Cockatoo's are also regular as are 'Yellow' Rosellas which are a sub-species of Crimson Rosella.

Galah

Yellow Rosella

For comparison heres a photo of a crimson Crimson Rosella.  

Red-rumped, or Grass, Parrots are also fairly common but very flighty and generally had to photograph.

Red-rumped Parrot

Sulphur-crested Cockatoo

By far the commonest are the Eastern Rosella's 

Eastern Rosella.

Theres a site not to far away where Turquoise parrots can sometimes be seen but so far I've not had any luck (I've only been once!) I also took a short drive to see some local Superb Parrots - an endangered species which this area seems to be a local hotspot for. I saw three but they were too far away to photograph. I've also seen two Little Lorikeets at the local dam and several Little Corella's flying into roost in the evenings. 

Little Lorikeet

Its amazing to see these generally large and brightly coloured native birds flying around and I'm hoping to add a few more species to my Australian list.