Night Parrot

Pezoporus occidentalis

Believed extinct for a century until photographed in 2013. Delivers messages from the Australian darkness.

Population: ~40-500 mature individuals (best estimate ~200), fragmented into 7-15 subpopulations
Habitat: Arid and semi-arid spinifex (Triodia) grasslands, chenopod shrublands, and mallee/eucalyptus woodland near water; roosts and nests on the ground under mature spinifex hummocks by day, forages nocturnally on nearby open ground
Fun fact: The Night Parrot was considered possibly extinct for most of the 20th century, with no universally accepted live sighting between 1912 and its dramatic rediscovery (a live bird photographed and later trapped/banded) in Queensland in 2013.
Range: Endemic to interior Australia; historically widespread across arid/semi-arid Australia but currently confirmed only at one site in southwestern Queensland and six sites in northern Western Australia (including the Pilbara and Great Sandy Desert), with additional unconfirmed/scattered recent-era records from the Lake Eyre basin (South Australia) and Northern Territory; extirpated as a breeding population from New South Wales, Victoria, and southern South Australia
Diet: Seeds of grasses and herbs, particularly Triodia/spinifex and Enneapogon purpurascens, foraged nocturnally on the ground, sometimes ranging several kilometers from daytime roosts
Size: 0.23 m

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