Pale-headed Rosella — David Taylor - Master Jeweller

I have been trying to get some nice photos of one of these for a few years now. It is a medium-sized, broad-tailed parrot, with a pale head and blue and white cheek patches. The back of the head/neck is yellow with dark flecks.

The depth of colouring of the body in general and the face patch in particular varies depending on the location you find them along the eastern side of Queensland and northern New South Wales.

The underbelly is mainly blue, with red under the tail. The female is similar, though slightly duller, with an off-white underwing stripe.

Kalkani Crater 6th December 2020 — Kalkani Crater, 6th December 2020

They are a really noisy bird. and you know when they are about. That said they are also really hard to get close to and it has taken me two years to do just that. When perched they can make a high pitched rapid 'pi-pi-pi-pi-pi' and soft chattering.

Pale-headed Rosellas feed mainly on the ground, but also in trees and shrubs. I often see them flying out of the grass as I walk in the bush. From my observation flight is fast and straight during which they can make a “kwik kwik" calling.

Their diet consist of seeds and fruits of grasses, shrubs and trees, as well as flowers, insects and their larvae. They feed more often in shade than in sunlight. On this day at Kalkani Crater it was so hot I did not blame them for not wanting to come out in the open to let me get a good photo.

They make their nests in the hollows of either dead or living trees, usually in eucalypts, or hollow stumps and posts. The nest is often near water. The photo of this bird was in a dead tree out in the middle of Wurruma Swamp.

They live in savanna woodlands, lightly timbered woodlands with a grassy understorey, tree-lined watercourses and agricultural lands.

I regularly spot them in Far North Queensland from the coast to well up into the Tablelands and out to Mt Surprise.