Friday, May 20, 2011

Australia - The World of Parrots

The newly released work by Canadian filmaker, Donald Kimball.
Anyone who lives in Australia will be well aware of the richness of our birdlife, and particularly the parrots. Perhaps it is something that some of us take for granted, but to have birds as colourful and brash as Galahs, Ringnecks, and Budgies, bashing around in our backyards is unusual by world standards. It's an absolute delight for foreign visitors to land at any of our capital cities and find trees festooned with birds as dazzling as Rainbow Lorikeets, Crimson Rosellas, or Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos.

This is certainly something that had an impact on Canadian filmaker, Donald Kimball. A frequent visitor to Australia, and repeat visitor to Alice Springs, he was so taken with our parrots that he was driven to set himself a natural history filmaking task of Everest proportions - to film every living Australian parrot species in the wild. After 6 months, and inumerable thousands of kilometres travelling to every corner of the country, Donald has triumphed and we can finally enjoy the fruits of his adventure in the 4 disc DVD series he has just released, "Discovering the World of Parrots: Australia".

Donald only dipped out on one species, the ever elusive Night Parrot. If he'd managed to film that bird it would have been front page news worldwide. There are no photos in existence of a live specimen and only a handful of people still alive who claim to have seen the bird in the wild. This obvious and forgiveable miss aside, the series constitutes a comprehensive catalogue of the most arresting members of the Australian avifauna.

Some of the most stunning varieties are from the desert landscapes around The Red Centre so keep your eyes peeled for familiar settings.

The DVD's are available along with several free trailers at Donald's website;

1 comment:

  1. Wow thanks for such a glowing review guys! Alice will always be super special to me as Alice is where I had the chance to obtain vehicle, supplies and necessities for my trip to the Gibson desert. All the while hoping beyond hope that I might see and film Princess Parrots. The rest as they say is history and I will never forget the beauty of your region or the beauty of the Princess I encountered! Cheers!

    Don Kimball
    Polytelis Media

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