For the passed 2 late afternoons I have seen these very odd looking birds flying around in the area of my home. I see them only when the sun is close to setting (about an hour before dark give or take 10 minutes) and today I saw a flock of 4 or 5 of them flying through.
At first glance when flying passed they looked like Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos but smaller in size. They are, in flight, black in colour to look at. They sound just like Australian King Parrots. But they are much, much darker in colour than an Australian King Parrot.
In the past I have seen an overgrown Australian King Parrot male and this bird, along with it's flock, is not an overgrown or oversized King Parrot per se. It actually looks like someone grabbed a King Parrot and just stretched it. In flight their necks are elongated as well. This ruled out the theory that the parrot, in this photo, was just stretching it's neck out to get a better look at something. This parrot and the others in it's flock all have longer than normal necks.
I have not seen these particular birds before prior to yesterday. There are no normal King Parrots in the area nor have been for at least a week now.
If this bird is indeed an Australian King Parrot then it has to be a mutation as I have not seen King Parrots like this before - ever.
The 2nd photo is a cropped image of the first photo. Nothing has been altered except for cropping the 2nd photo, resizing the photos to less than 500 KB and renaming them.
Has anyone else seen unusual dark looking King Parrotish looking parrots flying around that fit the above description? Does anyone have any ideas of what these birds could be? Do we have any really long necked parrots here in Australia that are native?
(Edit: moving this thread from Surveys and interesting sightings to Identifications)
Weird. Where are you located? Could this be a king parrot crossed with some other sort of parrot?
soakes
Olinda, Victoria, Australia
I'm located at Tenterfield, NSW and this is where this bird and small flock was sighted. It is weird, isn't it? I can't even guess about a possible cross breeding with another parrot species because nothing up this way even remotely fits the bill of what a King Parrot could've cross bred with, unless a King Parrot cross bred with a Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo and had 4-5 kids. Its the long neck, the darker than normal green feather colours and the really long and lean looking body of these birds that really throw me off and confuse me. The white markings in it's tail feathers tell me it's not a true King Parrot either, and looks suspiciously like a Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo's tail, in part. Its the long neck that really baffles me though.
I'm at Tenterfield, NSW. (Formerly known as "Hyperbirds".)
It could be a cross between a red winged parrot and a king parrot or a new subspecies/mutation of king parrot.
For Australian birds, natives=life, exotics=death, so do them a favour and go plant some natives and save their lives.
Possibly. Here are some photos of a mutated red-winged parrot:
http://mutace-papousku.com/en/papousek-cervenokridly/sedozeleny/
soakes
Olinda, Victoria, Australia
Thanks for your comments doublebar and soakes. I'm not sure about this bird being a cross with a red-wing parrot and a king parrot. We don't get red-winged parrots up this way that I'm aware of. I've never seen that species here anyway but that doesn't mean they are not possibly in a nearby area somewhere.This bird has me baffled, as yesterday I managed to record it calling out, and it did not sound like a King Parrot at all. Yesterday I just saw two of them together. I saw them for less than 30 seconds and they were both gone. They seem to be hanging around the area where the Little Corellas are in greater abundance feeding, but not amongst them. I'll try uploading the video of the bird calling out as soon as I can, and hope the audio is still intact as I didn't get the chance to really zoom into the bird before it flew away.
I still don't think it is a crossbred animal but it could be. It is it's really long neck that baffles me as to what it could've crossbred with to get such a long neck. Its confusing.
I'm at Tenterfield, NSW. (Formerly known as "Hyperbirds".)
Is it an exotic species that is an escapee?
https://youtu.be/JTW_nNUQn1I
Here's the video I said I was going to upload. Sorry, it's a really bad video. In this video, the bird in question, sounds similiar to an Eastern Rosella, but I can guarantee it was not an Eastern Rosella that I saw. Just as the bird flew back into the tree I stopped recording. The very next thing that happened was the bird turned around and flew off with it's mate which was still in the tree. Eastern Rosellas are flocking together and squabbling with one another (that's what they were doing yesterday when this video was taken).
Woko, I've thought about many different things including an exotic escapee (or 5) and at first I thought it may have been. I've temporarily come to a conclusion about these 5 individual birds that all look the same - they are nothing more than Australian King Parrots - with one exception, The exception is this - in this neck of the woods King Parrots are getting longer and leaner. I have no idea how many generations of these longer and leaner King Parrots there are up here, or when it all began, but I do know now their feather colours are also changing to become, darker than normal, green. In flight, even when the sunlight is on them, they appear black in colour. And their voices (calls) sometimes sound like normal King Parrots and sometimes they don't. There's no "flash of colour" as these birds fly passed overhead - in any direction. With the normal King Parrots you'll see a flash of red and bright green (or just red) with a male flying passed at the same time of day.
This video was taken at 6:15PM before the setting sun began to cast heavy shade in the immediate area, and just minutes after the Little Corellas in the area went onto high alert due to the approach of dusk and to make sure everyone in the flock is accounted for.
It just seems strange that I've only seen or heard these mutated King Parrots from about 6PM onward each day, for the passed few days, always heading in a westerly direction.
Normal King Parrots have left the area for the year, to breed probably, and come back after winter of each year now. They left the area some weeks ago or more. They always come back with their new offspring. This means these King Parrots are not from this area at all, and probably have never been in this area before. How long they will stay here for I do not know.
This may seem like a coincidence but the timing is ironically coincidental. These parrots showed up here when the Little Corellas started feeding enmasse (about 300 in the flock) in the immediate area also just a day or two after an owl that had been feeding/hunting in the immediate area had disappeared. These parrots seem to be following the Little Corellas for the safety factor but I believe both species roost in separate directions.
What I don't understand though, is if these are indeed a mutation of King Parrots evolving into something bigger and better, then why are they hanging around each other and mating with each other? Why aren't they mating or pairing up with normal King Parrots for the genetic diversity? Perhaps, like those lonely all white Australian Magpies out there, no normal bird of their species will mate with them so they are forced to mate with each other?
One thing I have noticed is black coloured birds tend to panic more when a raptor is spotted during the day overhead. Probably for a raptor a moving black coloured bird out in the open is easier to spot than a colourful bird as it looks like a moving shadow. This might explain why these King Parrots use the flock of Little Corellas as cover to confuse predators as the approach of dusk arrives, in order to get where they are going to - or to get out of the area knowing there may be predators in the immediate area. The evolution of brightly coloured birds actually makes sense to me now.
It would not surprise me if these King Parrot individuals became noctural or diurnal (hope that's the right word) to elude predators.
I'm at Tenterfield, NSW. (Formerly known as "Hyperbirds".)
Unfortunately, there's not much to go on from your video, Shirley. Until someone can make a confident identification it might pay to be careful about surmising too much.
If you can get more photos or videos of these birds, it would be very interesting. I find thid fascinating. These birds look a bit spooky to me. Maybe post in identifications too. It seems to get more response than this forum.
Please post all your observations (not so much your guesses :)
soakes
Olinda, Victoria, Australia
we're going on need closer high-res photos please.
Could it be an emaciated Juvenile? -it could make the head/neck look distorted
Parrots can extend their neck as part of body language.
Looks like a normal king parrot with the sun behind it making the bird appear darker and the long neck looks as if the bird is stretched out calling.
I think that it is a mutation King, it looks like a dark factor mutation. Also like bird76 has said, it's stretching it's neck out because it is probably calling
Thanks everyone for your comments. The very next day these few birds left the area and didn't come back so this is all the information I've got. I just give up.
I'm at Tenterfield, NSW. (Formerly known as "Hyperbirds".)