Hi there. Spotted 3 rosellas in our trees this morning - they flew away after being there some time. It's the first time I've seen them around our place.

Any ideas on food we could leave for them to attract them back / encourage them to stay a while?

Thanks so much

Lisa

:lol:

I ahve tried many things to catch them in my old backyard in birkenhead in auckland.

closest i came was when i put my tame lorikeet in the garden and made him stay under a laundry basket rigged with a stick on a string and his favourite ball under the basket.

1 rosella came to see what he was and i almost got him... almost... :lol:

it was a priceless sight.

watch out if you do catch one, a guy I once new kept pigeons and a rosella knocked itself out on the window so he put it in a wire mesh cadge, when it woke up it ripped a hole in the mesh and escaped in about a minute.

And once Sirans mums cat caught one on the front lawn and it gave him a very graphic lesson on why that wasn't polite and not to do it again, poor cat never went near birds again.

Thanks for that. I have no desire to catch one just encourage them to brighten up our back yard

The kids were so excited to see them there

Lisa

my son built a bird feeder & fills it with honey water & seed which atracks them i believe, there are alot of them here.

watch out if you do catch one, a guy I once new kept pigeons and a rosella knocked itself out on the window so he put it in a wire mesh cadge, when it woke up it ripped a hole in the mesh and escaped in about a minute.

really, a mate used to catch wild ones & put them in his huge avery. he had a cage that had a compartment at the bottom where you put a rosella & it would attract another which would land on a perch on the top compartment & it would fall in & the door would shut over it. i don't recall them getting.

my son built a bird feeder & fills it with honey water & seed which atracks them i believe, there are alot of them here.

Thanks for that - will have to give that a go

Have you tried just whistling back? it takes a while to mimic but it sures gets them interested if you can do it right.

Have you tried just whistling back? it takes a while to mimic but it sures gets them interested if you can do it right.

I dunno how hard it would be...My rosella does her "dooot dooot dooot" call when the microwave beeps or someone whistles on the tv...So they can't be too demanding.

hook beaks need grains that they can peal so a parrot mix will work

They will in general stay in the same area so if food is available they will stay in the same km or so

They do compete with our native birds and those that are already here so be aware of that.

From memory, the North Shore had quite a problem with them over taking some where so they trapped them and disposed of them.

Commercially, they are caught with a spring net that is on the ground. When the group is close enough, the net is sprung and traps them underneath. As mentioned earlier, they have very strong beaks so leather gloves are normally used

hook beaks need grains that they can peal so a parrot mix will work

They will in general stay in the same area so if food is available they will stay in the same km or so

They do compete with our native birds and those that are already here so be aware of that.

From memory, the North Shore had quite a problem with them over taking some where so they trapped them and disposed of them.

Commercially, they are caught with a spring net that is on the ground. When the group is close enough, the net is sprung and traps them underneath. As mentioned earlier, they have very strong beaks so leather gloves are normally used

Nah, Rosellas don't have that strong of beaks. They'll just take off chunks of skin, nothing to worry about like the bigger parrots.

Nah, Rosellas don't have that strong of beaks. They'll just take off chunks of skin, nothing to worry about like the bigger parrots.

Personal experiance has me with totally different thoughts

The ones I kept, fed amond nuts to and they would open them

me too,would you like to come and hold mine when I worm them next,Ira?

me too,would you like to come and hold mine when I worm them next,Ira?

Why would I need to hold yours to prove that their weak little beaks only take off chunks of skin instead of fingers like bigger parrots?

I have one of each. The rosella actually barely even breaks the skin, the grey has actually eaten human flesh.

the bigger the beak the bigger the chunks

nothing quite like a flesh eating psittacine to keep you awake

Handy if you can keep that 180 degree swivel head under control and away from that delicate flesh between the thumb and forefinger. Index under the beak helps.