King Parrot

King Parrots are found across eastern Australia in pairs or in small parties, usually in the outer branches of forest trees. They eat nuts, fruit, seeds, nectar, blossoms and berries and talk to each other with pretty little bell like calls. They mostly find their food in the trees but sometimes come down to the ground to eat. They are very wary and will fly away when disturbed.

They fly swiftly with strong beats of their wings, weaving in and out of the forest trees, and in flight often call to each other with a loud 'crassack crassack' sound. The males have bright red heads and necks and rich green backs with blue tails. They reach their full colours after a couple of years . The females and younger males are mostly green with some reddish colouring underneath.

They nest in hollows in large trees. Sometimes the hollows may be near the ground but the entry will be higher up the trunk. Three or four rounded white eggs are laid on decayed wood dust at the bottom of the hollow. The female sits on the eggs for about 20 days, and the young leave the nest when they are about five weeks old.

King parrots like large trees and extensive timber milling in forests limits their ability to survive there. In Secret Gully, after a feed, they like to doze off on a shady tree, with their eyes half closed. When the sun strikes the males, they look like bright red apples in a tree.