We get these beautiful birds at home. In fact we have been feeding a pair of them on our front landing for a couple of years now.
The interesting thing is that despite our continued attempted interaction with the ones at home, they are still far more skittish than these ones which did not seem to shy at all.
In the process of identifying the two species from yesterday's posting, I saw a report that said St George had one of the highest number of bird species of anywhere in Australia. From the number of species we saw on our short walk along the river, it would be hard to disagree.
The report didn't say why but if I had to guess, I would say that apart from the existence of permanent water in the Ballonne River, it is because St George is on the western boundary of the birds of SE Qld and the eastern edge of the birds of the arid western regions. So there is an overlapping of the two habitats and the birds that go with them. Of course I could be completely wrong - I was wrong about something once.
@onewing They are a very close cousin of the Eastern Rosella Babs and their range in the south starts where the Eastern Rosellas ends in the north (if that makes sense)
