GrrlScientist is an evolutionary biologist, ornithologist, aviculturist, birder and freelance science and nature writer. A native of the Pacific Northwest, she relocated from Seattle to NYC with her parrots after earning a BS in Microbiology (emphasis in Virology) and PhD in Zoology (Ornithology) from the University of Washington. In NYC, she was the Chapman Postdoctoral Fellow at the American Museum of Natural History for two years, pursuing part of her "dream" research project by reconstructing a molecular phylogeny of the parrots of the South Pacific islands. GrrlScientist and her five parrots are currently relocating to Germany, where she will continue writing her blog while also writing a book and learning German. (Meanwhile, her parrots will continue to nibble on her extensive personal library.) If you appreciate GrrlScientist's writing, you can help pay her living expenses by hiring her to "blog" your conference, speak at your club or write articles for your publication (or by clicking on the Paypal button below). If you read an essay on this blog that you especially enjoyed, please nominate it for inclusion in 
tags: Budgerigar, Melopsittacus undulatus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery birds] Budgerigar, Melopsittacus undulatus, photographed in Boulia Shire, far west Queensland, Australia [I will identify these birds for you in 48 hours]
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
This year's floods along river systems such as the Diamantina and Georgina sparked prolific breeding by the budgies which have been feasting on an abundance of grass seeds.
"I have been here since 1983 and never seen anything like it," Boulia grazier Ann Britton said. "The skies are thick with budgies -- how they do not collide with each other is a miracle in itself."
Life Science
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Comments
easy one here, budgies!... long-tailed predominantly green and yellow bird (as opposed to the many captive-bred colors) with black scalloped markings on the wings and shoulders
Flooding along the Diamantina and Georgina rivers has incraesed grasses, the seeds of which have allowed budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulatus) to proloiferate
"What next? Now it's budgie storms in Queensland flood areas", Courier Mail (Australia), October 27, 2009
Posted by: David | October 31, 2009 10:15 AM
No, they're unripe bananas. It's a little known fact that just before they're ripe, their wings fall off. They're then caught by Queenslanders who bend them into the right shape before export.
That something so improbably perfect could exist is used by philosophers as the definitive proof of the existence of Ray Comfort.
Posted by: Bob O'H | October 31, 2009 1:37 PM
hmmm, a touch of Pharyngulitis there Bob?
It is true though that there is a genetic link between Giardia psittaci, a common parasite of budgerigars, and 50-page introductions to host organisms such as the Origin (musaceae endocarp being a likely vector) with a similarity between the signs of retarded growth, dehydration, and diarrhoea in budgie chicks and the result of getting past ther first page of Comfort's creationist twaddle...
Posted by: David | October 31, 2009 3:44 PM
It's a flock wild of budgies with that flashing of green and yellow. You should of done something harder like a flock of 'tiels or galahs.
Posted by: Bill | October 31, 2009 3:52 PM
Wild budgies, camouflaged for yellow & green vegetation.
Posted by: Monado, FCD | October 31, 2009 5:05 PM