Outasight night life killing our rarest bird, the night parrot
We may finally know why Australia’s most elusive bird, the night parrot, is so rare: it cannot see very well in the dark.
We may finally know why Australia’s most elusive bird, the night parrot, is so rare: it cannot see very well in the dark.
It had long been assumed that the species was sublimely adapted to its lifestyle but a study suggests that its vision is only on a par with parrots that are active during the day.
Researchers believe its poor night-time eyesight could help explain why the parrot, which was assumed to be extinct for most of the 20th century, is so scarce.
It seems that it struggles to negotiate the fences used to protect livestock in its remote outback habitat. It may also fail to spot predators.
“Night parrots must be able to find their way at night to find food, avoid obstacles while flying and escape predators,” Vera Weisbecker of Flinders University in Adelaide said. “We therefore expect their visual system to show adaptations for seeing in the dark, similar to other nocturnal birds … However, we found that this wasn’t the case.”
Researchers scanned the only known intact skull of the species using tomographic X-rays to make a 3D reconstruction of the bird’s skull and brain.
“We found that the night parrot has similar eye size to other parrots, with smaller optic nerves. It also has smaller optic lobes, which are visual processing areas in the brain,” Aubrey Keirnan, a co-author of a study published in Scientific Reports says. “This suggests that the night parrot may not be great at seeing in the dark.”
During the 20th century, the species achieved almost mythical status, with no reported sightings between 1912 and 1979.
Dr Weisbecker said researchers were lucky to have been allowed access to the skull, which was found in 1990 by Walter Boles, an ornithologist. “He spotted its mummified body by accident, lying by the side of the road after apparently being hit by a truck,” she said.
It was 23 years and 17,000 hours in the field until the next verified live sightings of the species, in Queensland.
The Times
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