Australian King Parrot

Please see LARGE.

On New Year's Eve, as has become our custom, we visited some very old friends (i.e. folks we have known for a long time) for an evening of feasting, wine tasting, cards and chat. It was all very pleasant and for the countdown moment, we watched the Sydney Harbour fireworks on television.

Anyway, lots of colourful native birds visit their garden to help themselves to the bird seed which is put out for them. Some, like this magnificent Australian King Parrot have become so friendly that they will eat from a hand held plate. This one was a little wary of the silly jerk with the black box (periodically going "click") but he ate heartily nonetheless.