The Crimson Rosella has got to be one of the most stunning Australian Birds. With it's deep-crimson, royal blue and black plumage, it stands out against the green and brown of the Australian bush. There are in fact 3 different colour variations of Crimson Rosella. Near the Murray River in Victoria's north, they are in fact yellow, black and blue; and in South Australia, they are somewhere between yellow and red.
Crimson Rosellas are perhaps such a popular #australianbird because they love to eat seed placed out by humans. They quickly become relaxed around humans also, and will feed from the hand. I remember many trips to Wilson's Promontory at the southern tip of Victoria as a child, where Crimson Rosellas would flock to you and eat seed from your hands. They would land on your shoulders and head, and surround you until you gave in and dumped your whole bag of seed on the ground for them to finish off.
The footage below, I captured with my GoPro in the bird feeder we have in our front garden. The Rosellas often visit for a feed and I love watching them jostling for position as they crunch up all the Sunflower seeds, ignoring the rest of the mix. You can also clearly hear the noises they make in the video. They have an almost chicken-like "clucking" sound and also make a lot of little whistles or squeaks.
Aside from what is given to them by people, Rosellas will eat the seeds of Eucalypts, grasses and shrubs; as well as insects and the flowers of some trees. I have also seen them waddling around on the ground in the garden and at local parks, eating Daisy flowers.
One of my Crimson Rosella photos entitled "Crimson Interest" features in my Australian Birds calendar for 2019.
The #crimsonrosella is a beautiful Australian bird and one of the few birds in Australia who's population is listed as Secure. Let's hope we have them for a long time to come.
Barry Callister Photography.
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