World Bird Wednesday: Australian King Parrot

I have been waiting for this link up since last Thursday!! On our drive up into the D'Aguilar Range last week, we stopped for a coffee at the J.M Jones Tearooms and what a treat... I looked up into the Jacaranda tree and saw these cheeky Sulphur-crested Cockatoos.

Then this beautiful male Australian King Parrot flew over to the Jacaranda. What a photographic treat!! It looks like he has been in a fight!

The markings & colours are so striking... The male has a brilliant red head and breast, green wings, dark blue rump and black tail.

Not long after, a young female flew over. The female's colourings are quite different. Dull green body and head, bright blue rump and red underbelly.

The striped feathers under the tail are beautiful!

Inside the tearooms was a bucket of seed... and so a whole family of Australian King Parrots joined us.

LOVE those blues on the rump! Such striking colours.

Sorry for the extremely long post... I just had to share all these. I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did.

Linking up with:

In Search of Jacarandas

Last week, on my drive home from my usual Thursday specialist appointment in the city, I noticed that one of my favourite trees was beginning to bloom all over Brisbane - The Jacaranda.

I don't know what it is about these trees that brings me such excitment & joy but I do know it dates back to the year we moved to Grafton (NSW) from Melbourne (VIC) - it was 1988. We only lived there for a year, before we moved north to Brisbane (QLD), but the Jacaranda tree-lined streets in Grafton had a lasting impact on me.

I loved the Jacaranda so much, that planted one in our front yard when I bought my house in 1999 and photographed it every year as it grew taller and flowered each October. I just love the beautiful purple-blue flowers.

Driving home from numerous appointments & tests this week, I decided that I would find some worth photographing (as I no longer own my lovely home in the Redlands, near Moreton Bay).

On Thursday, I saw a meter parking spot as I drove past the Brisbane City Botanical Gardens so I pulled over and went for a little walk. I only managed to find one Jacaranda in the gardens.

However, when I walked down to the river, I found this one across the Brisbane River below the Kangaroo Point Cliffs.

And this one, across the river beside St Mary's Anglican Church, Kangaroo Point.

I also discovered this one just beginning to bloom in front of a gorgeous little "Queenslander" on my way down to Wellington Point the other day:

And this the Jacaranda I planted back in 1999 when I bought my house - I can't believe how much it's grown in the last 2 years, since I sold my house!!
I love the carpet of fallen flowers on the lawn.

The same Jacaranda against the night sky: