He's not dead, but rare night parrot nest stays secret

THE CSIRO has confirmed naturalist John Young has taken the first pictures of a live night parrot in more than 100 years.

Night Parrot

THE director of the CSIRO's wildlife collection has confirmed naturalist John Young has taken the first pictures of a live night parrot in more than 100 years.

Mr Young is so concerned the publicity could wreck the habitat of the elusive bird that he is refusing to tell governments where he sighted it. He is also going to keep secret the tape recording he has made of the bird's call.

Leo Joseph, director and research leader of the Australian National Wildlife Collection at the CSIRO, said that thanks to Mr Young's find researchers could work to help preserve the bird.

"There have always been lots of reports of night parrots, so we've known they're out there, but we can now start building up more information about (them)," he said. The birds have not been seen live since the 19th century, though several dead ones have been found, most recently in 2006, when a bird apparently flew into a fence and was decapitated.

But an actual sighting has become very challenging given the night parrot's habitat is outback Australia and it is strictly noctural. The bird is also quite small and keeps very much to itself.

Mr Young first spotted the bird at 12.10am, and other sightings were made in the early hours of the day.

Mr Young presented his findings to a selected audience of about 100 people yesterday at Queensland Museum.

"I'd rather go to jail than tell anyone where I found it," he said, although he added that he would be informing the state and federal governments of the find.

He said he was looking for a private sector partner to help protect the bird, and needed between $2 million and $3m to develop a management plan.

Mr Young was holding back the video he had of the parrot and more pictures in the hope of using them to attract a commercial partner.

There was concern the night parrot may have become extinct, but while they have proved hard to track down there are hopes the species will prosper, as Mr Young said he saw a male and female as well as signs of breeding.

But he told the audience that "the last thing I want to see is hundreds of people out there with night lights" and making noises.

He would not be allowing anyone else access to the bird's call, which he used to attract the birds for the actual photograph.

Mr Young said he was reluctant to have anything to do with government, and criticised the Queensland government for not having a representative at the function.

But Paula Peeters, acting director of the threatened species unit at the Queensland Department of Environment and Heritage Protection, said an officer from the department was present.

"The department has been given no details of where the bird was photographed, and would not be able to consider any measures for better protecting the species or its habitat until that information is provided," she said.