Northiella haematogaster

7 Greater Bluebonnet at Belconnen, ACT

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Identification history

	Northiella haematogaster	2 Sep 2022	Liam.m
	Northiella haematogaster	2 Sep 2022	rawshorty

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4 comments

MatthewFrawley wrote:

3 Sep 2022

What's the story here?

DeletedUser wrote:

3 Sep 2022

Although the innocent until proven guilty theory for natural vagrants to occur is quite popular, and this is certainly not impossible, it is always a good theory in my view to view all possibilities, I think it is also important to treat many records with a healthy level of skepticism. Especially for things like Parrots which are so commonly kept in aviculture, it realistically is very difficult to discount such a possibility of an escapee. In terms of the particular species, in this case the Bluebonnet, it is usually a fairly sedentary and non-migratory species, and Canberra is also a fair way out of range, and it is not prone to nomadism or vagrancy. Sometimes observations of behaviours of the bird (e.g. tameness around people, abilities to forage and fly properly in the wild, etc) can be used to try to determine if this is a wild bird. However unless further evidence arises I would hold off from saying that it is a genuine vagrant (for scientific record keeping purposes), although each to their own in terms of counting it for their respective lists.

MatthewFrawley wrote:

3 Sep 2022

Thanks LukeD, that's why I asked for the story from rawshorty in terms of his observation of the bird and his opinion on whether he thinks it was an escapee.

rawshorty wrote:

3 Sep 2022

@MatthewFrawley, I treat most sightings of native birds as wild unless proven otherwise. Yes this one is out of range but so are many more that are not a kept bird so no questions are asked. I once had a sighting of Pied Honeyeaters in the ACT, way out of range but again no mention of escapee as they are not a know kept bird, birds can appear anywhere. The Apostlebird was another odd one, not too far out of range but odd to be on it's own, again no mention of escapee. The Major Mitchell sightings at Coombs and Cotter are free flying pets so I would never add them to my list. The Bluebonnet was quite tame but flighty at the same time, maybe it has been around for some time and as this location is quite busy, like most Parrots maybe it is just used to human intervention? At the end of the day we will most likely never know one way or the other if it is wild or escapee but since it has no leg bands I will call it wild, but each to their own.

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