Pink and Grey Galah
Pink and Grey Galahs are as much apart of the Perth landscape as Cottesloe Beach. Whether it is flocks of them feeding on the school ovals as the day wears on, or a screeching pair in flight they seem ubiquitous.
I am coming to realise that this ubiquity may not actually be a good thing.
Oh sure, they are native, pretty, smart and funny. But they are also highly competitive and in their high numbers restrict the number of nesting sites available for the rarer and threatened species of Black Cockatoo that also call Western Australia home.
I happened across a scene in a Maylands park last week where a pair of galahs seemed to be having a stand-off with a pair of Rainbow Lorikeets over a hollow in a tree.
The Rainbow Lorikeets are an equally common and competitive species so I don’t suppose it matters much which one ends up winning, but the spectacle was very interesting to watch and hear. As the Rainbow Lorikeet is an introduced species to WA I suppose it would be better for the galahs to get the nursery.
In this picture you can see the male with the dark eye and the female with the “I didn’t get enough sleep last night” red eye.
I always call these guys pink and grey galahs (because they are) and that infers there are other galahs out there. I haven’t been able to find any information of other kinds, apart from the human variety.
For more information see;
www.birdsinbackyards.net
birdlife.org.au
