Budgerigars fill the skies above Queensland
A pair of budgerigars photographed near Alice Springs © Robert Alison
Word from Queensland, Australia, has it that the skies around the far west town of Boulia are absolutely teeming with budgerigars, and tourists are streaming to the Australian Outback to witness the rare spectacle.
The first big floods in far-west Queensland in decades have created ideal breeding conditions for the tiny parrots, and about five or six different flocks – with 1,000 to 3,000 birds in each – are creating a wondrous sight.
According to Rick Britton, mayor of Boulia, the flocks of budgerigars look like smoke coming off a fire – it’s just like a wave of birds, he said.
A report in the Courier-Mail explained that this year’s floods along river systems such as the Diamantina and Georgina have sparked prolific breeding by the budgies which have been feasting on an abundance of grass seeds.
“I have been here since 1983 and never seen anything like it,” said Boulia grazier, Ann Britton. “The skies are thick with budgies – how they do not collide with each other is a miracle in itself. ”My father, who has travelled extensively in the Outback, was with me when we saw a massive flock and said he would not have believed the size if he had not seen it with his own eyes.”
Steve Wilson, spokesman for Desert Channels Queensland, said the green budgerigars were “virtually everywhere” in “great big clouds that look like a bee swarm”. The birds “just seemed to turn up” after rain brought new life to the region, and then began to breed.
“I was in Boulia where I saw 17 pairs nesting in a coolibah tree,” he said. “They like hollow logs, but the need to breed is dominant and one budgie was sitting on four eggs on the ground.”
In the wild, budgies are nomadic and can survive in very dry areas by following thunderstorms.
They have a very short breeding cycle, and with abundant water, flocks easily multiply.
