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THE FEATHERED NEST – Book 4 in The Th... THE FEATHERED NEST – Book 4 in The Th...

THE FEATHERED NEST – Book 4 in The Thornton Mysteries – Norfolk Island Birds

PRE-ORDER IS OPENRELEASE DATE: 14th MARCH 2022

Published by Crimson Cloak Publishing

NORFOLK ISLAND’S BIRDS:

Set in the 1920s, the Thornton family are antiques dealers. Thomas Thornton is also president of the Royal Society of Victoria, and in The Feathered Nest, he leads a group that includes his family to Norfolk Island to study the Green Parrot.

Green Parrot – Red-fronted Parakeet – Excerpt from Norfolk Island … the birds by Margaret Christian.

Unique to Norfolk Island.

“In 1789 Philip Gidley King R.N made mention repeatedly in his journal of the destructive plagues of ‘parroquets’ which were ‘in Very large flocks’…’having made great havock in one acre’ ruining the precious crops of wheat and Indian corn. This once common endemic parrot was reduced to an estimated fewer than 15 pairs in the early 1980s.”

Identification – Adult birds are a rich forest green, lighter green below, with a red crown, a red dot behind the eye and a blue leading edge to the wings. The beak is light blue, gradually darkening towards the tip which is blue-black. The eye is orange/red. Juveniles are similar to adults, but their beak is pinkish and their eyes are brown. Sexes are alike, but the male is slightly larger. Length: 30 cm

Excerpt from Norfolk Island … the birds by Margaret Christian.

Photo: Luis Ortiz Catedral

Norfolk Island has many other varieties of land birds. Some of the birds I mention in The Feathered Nest are: The Pacific Robin, the Golden Whistler otherwise known as Tamey, the White-breasted White-eye ‘Grinnell’, Emerald Doves, Crimson Rosellas, Masked Wood Swallows.

Some of the sea birds include the Providence Petrel and Wedge-tailed Shearwaters (Ghost birds)

Wedge-tailed Shearwaters’ (Ghost birds) mournful cries can be heard at nightfall.