Habits
Largely nocturnal, rarely seen until flushed.
Food
Seeds of grasses and herbaceous plants.
Voice
A high-pitched, rapid, morse code-like, ascending notes or beautiful, measured, bell-like notes, 'tee... tee... stit', uttered mostly at dawn and dusk. Also a clear, sustained, cricket-like chirrups.
Eastern Ground Parrot (Pezoporus wallicus) [XC639481]
by Marc Anderson from Cooloola, Gympie Regional, Queensland, Australia (uncertain)
Eastern Ground Parrot (Pezoporus wallicus) [XC98180]
by nick talbot from Strahan, Tas, Australia (song)
Nest
A substantial platform of grass and rootlets, on the ground in the shelter of a tussock, or among thick grass.
Eggs (Guide)
3 or 4; white; rounded; 27 - 28 x 21 - 23 mm. Incubation: about 21 days.
Young
Semi-altricial, nidicolous. Fledge in about 18 - 28 days.
Subspecies
Pezoporus wallicus was split into Pezoporus wallicus and Pezoporus flaviventris by Murphy et al. (2010), however despite the finding that western flaviventris differs from eastern wallicus+leachi by 4.4–5.1% in mitochondrial DNA (Murphy et al. 2010), the morphological differences are barely detectable, with flaviventris possessing a slightly yellower belly including a reduction to 0 of barring on the lower belly, giving this a score of 1. The BirdLife Taxonomic Working Group scoring system does not utilise molecular differences, given the absence of any evidence for a consistent degree of divergence as indicating a particular taxonomic status (subspecies, species, genus, etc.) and therefore flaviventris is not recognised as a separate species.
The following 3 subspecies are recognised:
wallicus Kerr, 1792 - Coastal south-eastern and eastern Australia, from south-eastern Qld through New South Wales to Victoria and Tasmania, also formerly occuring in coastal SA.
flaviventris North, 1911 - Coast of south-western Australia. Considered by some authors to be a distinct species, Western Ground Parrot (Pezoporus flaviventris).
leachi Mathews, 1912 - Tasmania.
Similar Species
Night Parrot (Pezoporus occidentalis) which is dumpy, lacks the orange-red forehead, lacks a barred under-belly, has shorter claws, has a large head and a short, wedge-shaped tail, and different range, preferring dry interior grasslands.
References
See References.
The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Pizzey, G., and Knight, E., 1997, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 19691 5
Field Guide to Australian Birds Morecombe, M., 2000, Steve Parish Publishing Pty Ltd. ISBN 1 876282 10 X
Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Simpson, K., and Day, N., 1999, 6th Edition, Viking ISBN 0 670 87918 5
Reader's Digest Complete Book of Australian Birds 1988, 2nd Edition, Reader's Digest ISBN 0 949819 99 9
What Bird is That? 1984, Revised Edition, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 14846 5
Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds 1990 - , Oxford University Press, Melbourne ISBN 0 19 553244 9
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BirdLife International Species Factsheet