We’re visiting friends in Australia and I watched a pair of parrots interact (oops, Marius Coomans writes from Australia to tell me they’re Galahs); photographed them, but didn’t understand. Oh, and a koala.

This was actually at a Koala Reserve on Phillip Island, not terribly far from Melbourne; my 9-year-old insisted. Koala-watching has a Where’s-Waldo flavor, since they are usually asleep, wedged into a tree-fork near where they last stopped eating.

So we wandered around trying to spot the stars of the show, and discovered these charming birds.

Two Australian Galahs

There was interaction going on; one bird was occasionally snuggling and nuzzling the other — totally cute.

Galahs interacting

I looked away and suddenly, with a discordant bird-noise outbreak, one of them was flying away, while the one left behind had expanded his-or-her crest. A reproduction thing, I suppose, or a power-struggle thing, or both.

Australian Galah

Oh, right, I guess it’d be wrong not to run a picture of a koala too.

Sleeping koala

Sound asleep, as they usually are.



Contributions

Comment feed for ongoing:Comments feed

From: Greg (Mar 18 2016, at 14:04)

Hope you have a wonderful time down here in Melbourne!

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From: Galah (Mar 18 2016, at 20:20)

Galahs are parrots. They are a type of cockatoo, also known as a Rose-breasted Cockatoo. Order: Psittaciformes.

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March 18, 2016
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