The 'vulnerable' Turqouise Parrot was spotted in the Yass Valley recently. Sighted in the Yass Valley, nesting in the hollows of a eucalyptus tree hundreds of years old, were three Turquoise Parrots.
The threatened and eye-catching species of parrot, can be found from south Queensland to north Victoria, but numbers are dwindling because of habitat destruction.
The bird, named after its electric blue crown and face, is listed as 'Vulnerable' on the Threatened Species Conservation Act, which is why it was so exciting for ecologist Joy Hafer to make the discovery.
"It was absolutely fantastic, we observed two adults and a smaller one in the hollows of a Eucalyptus melliodora (Yellow Box) at the corner of Yass Valley Way and Black Range Road," the Wollongong University expert explained.
"There weren't that many trees on site, so to find them there was really quite exciting."
Ms Hafer said care needs to be taken when clearing trees on a property.
"If there is a dead tree that's dangerously close to your house then it's a threat and you should remove it but if there's a dead tree with lots of hollows that you want to get rid of purely because it's unsightly just leave it because it so important to our threatened fauna.
Trees take more than 200 years to develop these hollows that birds like the Turquoise Parrot can make home and breed in."
It is likely that the parrots found in town were breeding on site and they had found a suitable hollow and chomped out some of the dead wood around it to create a bed out of the wood chips.
Ms Hafey also suggested planting trees as an important way to protect local species in the long term.