Rangers discover rare night parrot chick in Western Australia
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Ngururrpa Rangers in Western Australia’s Great Sandy Desert found a young night parrot, a critically endangered bird, while conducting surveys in July.
The rangers, working with researchers, were elated by the discovery, with some crying tears of joy as they observed the bird in a nest within a spinifex grass tunnel. This sighting was particularly special because night parrots are usually hidden during the day.
The Ngururrpa Indigenous Protected Area holds one of the largest known populations of the night parrot, though many rangers had never directly seen one before. Kathryn Njamme, a ranger, explained the team sought guidance from ancestral spirits at a sacred tree, asking for help in locating the birds before a recent rainfall. Following the rain, Lucinda Gibson discovered a colourful feather leading to the chick’s burrow in the spinifex grass, known locally as “lanu lanu”.
The rangers are now collaborating with scientists to improve conservation efforts. They are developing an eDNA program to detect night parrot presence in waterholes, and an AI tool to analyze audio recordings for the bird’s distinctive call. This work combines traditional Indigenous knowledge of the land with scientific methods to better understand and protect the night parrot from threats like feral cats and wildfires.
