Mass feeding event of Turquoise Parrots and Eastern Rosellas on the North-west Slopes of New South Wales

Abstract

This note describes the detection of two contemporaneous mass feeding events of a total of ~1000 parrots. After a report of large numbers of Turquoise Parrots Neophema pulchella being found on 8 May 2021, the next day we encountered flocks totalling ~300 Turquoise Parrots and ~700 Eastern Rosellas Platycercus eximius feeding on seeding grasses on a cattle property on the North-west Slopes of New South Wales. The two species, which congregated separately from each other, showed a preference for different species of introduced grasses, neither of which had been reported previously in the diets of these parrots: Turquoise Parrots fed on Purple Pigeon Grass Setaria incrassata and Eastern Rosellas fed on Premier Digit Grass Digitaria eriantha. Sometime between 10 and 21 May, the feeding event was over, before the supply of seeds was exhausted; neither before nor after the event has either species been observed in these large numbers in the region.