A The parrots spread from ancestral forests through eucalypt woodlands to colonise the central deserts of Australia, and as a consequence they diversified into a wide range of species with adaptations that reflect the many changes animals and plants had to make to survive in these areas.
B Like all of Australia’s many honey-eating birds, the rainbow-coloured lorikeets and the flowers on which they feed have long co-evolved, with features such as the shape and colour of the flowers adapted to the birds’ particular needs.
C The clearing of large areas of rainforest is probably responsible for the disappearance of the double-eyed fig parrot, and numbers of ground parrots declined when a great part of their habitat was destroyed by the draining of coastal swamps.
D Galahs were seen going down holes and destroying black cockatoo eggs in order to take the hole for their own use. Their success precipitated a partial collapse in the black cockatoo population when the latter lost the struggle for scarce nesting hollows.
Questions
1. an example of how one parrot species may survive at the expense of another
2. a description of how plants may adapt to attract birds
3. how the varied Australian landscape resulted in a great variety of parrot species
4. an example of a parrot species which did not survive changes to its habitat