This is a Dracula Parrot, also known as Pesquet’s Parrot, and hails from the rainforest of Papua New Guinea.

It is quite a large bird and looks a bit like a vulture. Many people would ask why was it called Dracula. Reasons given included its vulturine appearance, and its sharply hooked beaks and very dark red and black plummage which some said resembled Dracula’s fangs and cape respectively.

But Dracula Parrots do not share the Count’s lust for blood and feed entirely on figs, flowers and nectar.

These parrots seemed to be solitary birds and not sociable ones. While other parrots would often be seen flying about, squawking or even damaging park facilities such as electrical cables and junction boxes etc with their beaks, the Dracula Parrots always seemed to be perched silently and still on the tree branches all the time, hardly moving and only occasionally preening their feathers …

Sometimes you might be unaware of their presence entirely. You could be walking on the elevated footpath in the aviary, stopped to rest, turned around and suddenly meet it eye-to-eye perched on a tree branch directly behind you … spooky!