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Blue-winged Parrot

Blue-winged Parrot (Image ID 47209)
Photographed byMichael Hamel-Green on Tue 13th Jul, 2021 and uploaded on Wed 21st Jul, 2021 .
Resolution1800x1066
Viewed143
ID47209
CommentCoastal saltmarsh scrub is at its most beautiful in late autumn and early winter.
Beaded Glasswort (Sarcocorina quinqueflora) turns from green to various shades of red, with salt-tolerant succulent “fingers” pointing upwards. Coastal Grey Saltbush (Altriplex cinera) provides important roosting sites and cover for both small birds. The lower-growing Shrubby Glasswort turns delicate shades of pink and red. The seeds and fruits of saltmarsh scrub are of great interest to our critically endangered Orange-bellied Parrots (only 200 left in the wild), so perhaps it is not surprising that every autumn they head for the Werribee Treatment Plant and other similar habitats along the southern Australian coast from their breeding grounds in Tasmania. The photo shows a pair of the less endangered but still relatively uncommon Blue-winged Parrots observed in this saltmarsh habitat at Western TP. Blue-wings look very like OBPs and are much the same size, and, just to confuse things, may also sometimes have orange bellies (but not in the case of this pair). One of the pair is feeding on the shrub while the other is keeping an eye out. Only minutes before a whole flock of some 20 to 30 Blue-wings had taken to the air nearby in consternation at the worrying arrival of two Black-shouldered Kites reconnoitring the area. Evident in the photo are the beautiful shades of blue, olive green and lemon in the sentinel bird’s plumage, and, of course, the striking bright blue patch in its wing. Blue-wings breed in both Victoria and Tasmania, and it is thought (though not yet established) that the Victorian ones tend to move northwards in the winter while the Tasmanian ones only move as far as Victoria. So this pair, like their OBP cousins, might well be Tassie winter visitors. That is the thing about Western TP, no sooner do you say goodbye over winter to all those amazing globe-winging Curlew, Sandpiper, Godwit and Greenshank visitors as they set off on their 13,000km journeys to their summer breeding grounds in the Siberian Arctic than you find yourself welcoming the winter arrival of some of our own uncommon migratory species, such as Blue-wings and OBPs! Never a dull birding moment at WTP unless an intruding Black-shouldered Kite makes it so.
EquipmentNikon Z7ii, Nikon 500mm PF f5.6
ISO 1250
1/500th f5.6
LocationWestern Lagoon, Werribee Treatment Plant, Victoria
Keywordsfeeding/with prey, adult
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