Hello Birdy: Australian TV Show

[strudel]

Hope this is ok, it's not an advertorial, I've got no interest in the show other than as a viewer/interest in birds person.

An episode of this show on parrots caught my eye in the tv guide. Really good show, I want to see the other episodes and think I'll buy the DVD if my local library doesn't have it.

The parrot episode showed some sulphur-cresteds in the Sydney Botanical Gardens that they've tagged and they've each got a facebook page and people who see them post on the page so they can track where the birds go. They also investigated a nest and one of the babies took his "maiden flight" while they were filming.

Then they went to the wilds of Tasmania to look at a rare orange-bellied parrot http://www.birdlife.org.au/projects/orange-bellied-parrot-recovery which is in danger of extinction and efforts to get the numbers up.

Then they showed a town in South Australia that gets "Hitchcocked" by corellas and what they are doing about it. It must be awful for the people who live there, but the footage showed the corellas looking really cute as they wrecked the place.

Don't know whether they'll put it on tv overseas, but if you see it in the program, you might want to tune in. I'm here and it told me things I had no idea about.

https://shop.abc.net.au/products/hello-birdy-dvd

 

[Betrisher]

That was a great show, wasn't it? I saw it when they played it on the ABC last year. I was most impressed with William McInnes (who I always liked as an actor - who knew he was a birdo as well?).

I did wish they'd showed a lot more of parrots in urban settings here in Oz. What about the huge flocks of Rainbow and Scaly-breasted Lorikeets in Sydney/Newcastle? What about the transient SC2s and Corellas that are (suddenly) coming into the cities over the past few years? And why do the Galahs seem to be moving out as the white cockies come in? I reckon very few people are aware of the (rather large) populations of grass parrots and rosellas in and around our cities. I mean, the Lorikeets are obvious because they're deafening, but the humble grass parrot flocks on the roadside verges and soccer fields never get a mention.

 

[strudel]

oh, I forgot about the drunken lorikeets in the show. That was sad...

We get big black crows now. They used to only be out in the country. I suppose there are so many different places and species and circumstances, they just pick something and do that. As Attenborough has shown, you can work on it your whole life and still have things to pick.

I only knew of McInnes as an actor. He also writes books.... His commentary was amusing on this show.