Never Forget: John Young Found the Night Parrot

           

John Gould's lovely illustration of Night Parrots from the 1860's. John Young produced the first photographs of living Night Parrots.

In 2013 John did what no one else had been able to do. He rediscovered the Night Parrot. John Young’s accomplishment cannot be overstated. He put in fifteen years and tens of thousands of his own dollars into tracking down this elusive bird. Of course no one can "own" a species, but John has as good a claim to doing that as anyone could. He found the Holy Grail of Australian birds and there are many of us who will never forget that. I for one am very grateful.

My friend John Young and me laughing (of course).

There has been much news lately about these parrots. The capture and tagging of one of these incredibly rare birds, and the creating of a conservation reserve to protect the area that John found has created a flurry in the media.

A Google search of news of the Night Parrot produced these and more.

Some of these articles have been poorly written, several copying lines from each other such as referring to John Young’s stunning, clear first photos as “blurry images.” Sadly, the Australian Geographic article was one of the worst. We cannot allow John to be minimized to a footnote in the story of the Night Parrot. Perhaps the reserve should be named the "John Young Conservation Reserve?" Regardless we should always remember John's amazing accomplishment.

This article is one of the "better" ones: ABC Night Parrot


Birds. Peace. Love. Earth. Laughter. Music.