Flanked by an escort
in full dress uniform
– blues and brilliant red –
he is dull green in
gumleaf-coloured cams.
He calls querulously,
interrupting flute-like chatter.
He hasn’t learnt the signal-songs.
But he takes to the air,
the sky built into his wings.
Juvenile crimson rosellas are quite green, I assume for camouflage. Then they go through a manky looking phase as they moult and grow their adult red and blue plumage. This one is young enough that the parents are still feeding it, even though it’s coming to the feeder with them.
anotherKate 
Never understood that about the rosella. They stick out like a sore thumb, or as I would say in oz, like dogs balls 😂 I miss crude Aussie humour.
As camo it’s as useful as tits on a bull. 😀
100m away, on the other side of a ridge where the land is cleared, it’s mostly eastern rosellas, but on our side among the trees it’s exclusively crimsons. In 15 years I have never seen a single eastern rosella on this side.
Another Aussie classic! My mother and nan used it all the time. I tried it when I got here and confused HEAPS of people 😉
So it’s territorial, the interesting. Love how nature colour coordinates.
I use “tits on a bull” a lot. Mostly to my kids when they’re being useless. And “shit faster, the bear is coming” but that comes from my Latvian grandmother.
I’m waiting for my kids to get a bit older before I unleash that beauty.
Love the Latvian, hadn’t heard that one.
Lovely images and poem
Thanks VJ. I wish I could take bird photos as beautiful as yours!
Thanks, but these are beautiful.