A swift dash for a photo
CONGRATULATIONS TO THIS week’s AG Flickr group member Beau Meney, for his AG Reader Photo of the Week of a swift parrot.
“After a local tip-off in early winter 2016, I grabbed my camera and drove over to a local suburban street north-west of Melbourne scanning flowering roadside yellow gums for the critically endangered swift parrot, which had recently begun arriving on the mainland from their annual migration from Tasmania,” says Beau.
“After less than five minutes of driving with the windows down listening out for parrot activity, I found four swift parrots busily feeding alongside purple-crowned lorikeets on the flowers of a large yellow gum in the front yard of a suburban house.
“Initially there were four swift parrots quietly feeding just a couple of metres above my head, but over the course of an hour or so this number grew to 13. Just a few days later I would find up to 26 individual swift parrots feeding in the same tree! With light quickly fading, I managed to capture this shot of a juvenile taking a quick break from feeding in the setting Sun.
“Finding a species at such high risk of extinction frequently using habitat found literally on people’s doorsteps, shows the importance of both retaining and adding native trees and other native vegetation to your backyard, and sends a strong message that you can make a real difference in the conservation of our native wildlife simply by doing just that!”
This photo appeared in the Australian Geographic Flickr group. Share your own photography and it could be featured on Australian Geographic online!
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