Searching for the rare Abaco parrot

The lime-green Abaco parrot isn't easy to find, since the birds nest in the ground, or six feet under in limestone caves. We got lucky. Image by Diane BairABACO, Bahamas -- The first thing you should know if you go exploring the interior of Great Abaco Island is that nobody does this. Nobody. In spite of the fact that there are more than 200 species of birds — five found only in the Bahamas — plus dozens of “blue holes” and a lovely national park, you will be a sight more rare than the Abaco parrot if you venture away from the beach.

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Outlook bleak for Carnaby's black cockatoo

The outlook is bleak for a threatened bird species that's unique to WA's southwest, research shows.THE outlook is bleak for a threatened bird species that's unique to Western Australia's southwest, research shows.

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Fossil name honours Don Merton

Merton's parrot. Holotype (right tarsometatarsus), S.052016, Te Papa. Image Te PapaNew Zealand's New Parrots Four new kinds of fossil parrots have just been discovered in Otago. Te Papa's Alan Tennyson, Canterbury's Paul Scofield and ex- Kiwi Trevor Worthy report three of these birds were the size of parakeets, the other as big as a kea.

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Kaka numbers booming at Pukaha

CHEEKY BEGGARS: Kaka at Pukaha Mt Bruce.Booming numbers of kaka are great news for Pukaha Mt Bruce National Wildlife Centre - even if cafe staff have to be on the lookout for beggars.

"We have some quite cheeky kaka who are nesting and they're begging for food at the cafe," manager Helen Evans-Tickner said. "They are getting a little bit overzealous."

The Dominion Post has been told of a cafe worker and a child being bitten by the native parrots recently. Ms Evans-Tickner said they sometimes nipped at staff, but she had not heard of bitten customers.

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Carolina parakeet was native to U.S.

The Carolina parakeet, the only parrot once native to the eastern United States, has been extinct since the 1920s.From a nearly seven-foot ostrich skeleton to tiny hummingbirds, birds are one of strengths of the Bruce Museum's natural history collection. Most are housed securely in a compact, climate-controlled area of the museum's basement, awaiting their turn to become part of an exhibition, research project, educational program or loan to another institution. Some species have come from the tropics, Asia and Africa, but most are common birds of New England; however, a few are very rare.

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