A RARE night parrot was flying between its feeding grounds and a waterhole in far western Queensland when it struck a barbed wire fence and was killed.
The Australian revealed last week that National Parks and Wildlife Service officers discovered the headless bird in November, confirming the survival of Australia's rarest bird.

It was only the second time in almost 100 years that a night parrot had been recorded.

Parks service central regional director Keith Twyford said yesterday the bird was found near a waterhole in a sparsely vegetated area in the Diamantina National Park.

Mr Twyford said it appeared to have been flying from nearby spinifex-covered sand dunes. It was about 200km south of where a road-killed night parrot was found near Boulia in 1990, the first confirmed record since 1912.

The sprawling 500,000ha national park is the home of the bilby, the kowari, the yellow chat and other endangered wildlife.

Mr Twyford said surveys by parks officers after the discovery failed to turn up more parrots, and access to the area had since been limited by rain and flooding.

Further surveys with Birds Australia and other private groups were planned when the weather improved. Mr Twyford said that since The Australian's report, the parks service and the Queensland Museum, where the specimen has been freeze dried, have received calls from around the country.

"For the bird-loving community, this is the equivalent of finding the tomb of King Tutankhamen," he said.

"The great thing is that it shows that the birds are still surviving out there." Adelaide bush safari operator Rex Ellis said yesterday that he was leading a camel safari in 1979 when four night parrots were flushed from a shrub-covered plain near Lake Perigundi, in northeast South Australia.

Mr Ellis said six observers, including the then South Australian Museum birds curator, thelate Shane Parker, saw the parrots.

"We could not locate them again, although we searched the area thoroughly for the next two days," Mr Ellis said.

"Nor have we been able to find them since, although we have tried. It is a mysterious bird."

The night parrot is one of only two nocturnal parrots in the world - the other is New Zealand's kakapo.

The night parrot and the ground parrot are Australia's only two ground-dwelling parrots.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...6-2702,00.html

How cool! I hope there are more of them thriving in the wild and I hope humans leave them alone to thrive. Rare parrots tend to attract $$$seekers.

That is great! Yes, hope they will thrive and be left to do so.

That's cool.I'm still waiting for the day they find one of the extinct Macaws still exist.