Species Pezoporus occidentalis (Gould, 1861)

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CAVS: 0312

Species Pezoporus occidentalis (Gould, 1861)

Night Parrot

Geopsittacus occidentalis Gould, J. 1861. On a new genus and species of parakeet from Western Australia. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1861: 100-101 [Date published Aug.] [100] [holotype probably figured, at least in part, on pl. 66 in Gould, J. 1869. The Birds of Australia. Supplement. London : J. Gould 81 pls pp. [Pt 3, 1859] (Pt 4, 1867), cf. Mathews, G.M. 1917. The Birds of Australia. London : Witherby & Co. Vol. 6 pt 6 pp. 445–516 + xix pls 317–324 [11 Dec. 1917] (498)].
Type data:
Holotype BMNH 1868.1.27.30 unsexed adult, 13 km SE of Mt Farmer, west of Lake Austin, WA (as Western Australia)
Comment: for identification of holotype, see Salvadori, T. 1891. Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum. Catalogue of the Psittaci, or Parrots. London : British Museum Vol. 20 xvii 658 pp. XVIII pls (598) and Warren, R.L.M. 1966. Type-specimens of Birds in the British Museum (Natural History). Vol. 1 Non-Passerines. London : British Museum ix 320 pp.
Geopsittacus occidentalis whiteae Mathews, G.M. 1915. Additions and corrections to my List of the Birds of Australia. Austral Avian Records 2: 123-133 [Date published 129] [129].
Type data:
Holotype AMNH 623833 ♂ imm. (G.M. Mathews' coll. no. 8954), near Lake Gairdner, between Lakes Gairdner and Acraman, SA (as near Lake Gairdiner)
Comment: for identification and locality of holotype, see Greenway, J.C. 1978. Type specimens of birds in the American Museum of Natural History. Pt 2. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 161: 1–306.
Type locality references:
Greenway, J.C. 1978. Type specimens of birds in the American Museum of Natural History. Pt 2. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 161: 1-306.

Taxonomic Decision for Synonymy

Schodde, R. & Mason, I.J. 1981. Nocturnal Birds of Australia. Illustrated by Jeremy Boot. Melbourne : Lansdowne Edns 136 pp. 22 pls. [publication dated as 1980] [35]

Distribution

States

Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia

Extra Distribution Information

Classified extinct in VIC and NSW - see HANDBOOK; arid inland Australia, west to eastern fringe of the Pilbara, WA, north to the southern fringe of the Kimberley Division, WA, in the west and the Sandover Desert, NT, in the east, east to the central Diamantina, Thomson-Cooper, Bulloo, Paroo and lower Lachlan River drainages, NSW, and south to the middle Murray Mallee and Flinders-Gawler Ranges, VIC/SA, and region of Cue, WA—range probably restricted now to central and NE Lake Eyre basin, QLD, NT, SA, and Great Victoria, Gibson and Great Sandy Deserts, SA, WA.

Note that conversion of the original AFD map of states, drainage basins and coastal and oceanic zones to IBRA and IMCRA regions may have produced errors. The new maps will be reviewed and corrected as updates occur. The maps may not indicate the entire distribution. See further details below.

IBRA and IMCRA regions (map not available)

drainage basins and coastal and oceanic zones (map not available)

IBRA

NT, Qld, SA, WA: Burt Plain (BRT), Channel Country (CHC), Coolgardie (COO), Central Ranges (CR), Dampierland (DL), Finke (FIN), Gibson Desert (GD), Great Sandy Desert (GSD), Great Victoria Desert (GVD), Hampton (HAM), Little Sandy Desert (LSD), MacDonnell Ranges (MAC), Mitchell Grass Downs (MGD), Mount Isa Inlier (MII), Murchison (MUR), Nullarbor (NUL), Simpson Strzelecki Dunefields (SSD), Stony Plains (STP), Tanami (TAN)

Original AFD Distribution Data

Australian Region

Australia
- Northern Territory: Lake Eyre basin
- Queensland: Lake Eyre basin
- South Australia: Lake Eyre basin
- Western Australia: W plateau

Ecological Descriptors

Crepuscular, desert, folivore, granivore, hummock grassland, low open shrubland, low shrubland, nocturnal, nomadic, salt lake, sand hill desert, sand plain desert, terrestrial, tussock grassland, volant.

Extra Ecological Information

Stony desert, randomly dispersed?, opportunistic breeder?, roosts by day under clumps of spinifex (Triodia) and chenopodiaceous shrubs on salt lakes, flies out at night to feeding and watering grounds, nests in tunnelled chambers under clump of Triodia or chenopodiaceous shrubs, probably wanders very widely to erratic flushes of desert seeding.