22 Oct 2012

Budgies flock to Outback waterholes

2:45 pm on 22 October 2012

Budgies are flocking to Outback waterholes in Central Australia.

Zoologist Anthony Molyneux from the Alice Springs Desert Park says the explosion of budgie numbers is a rare phenomenon.

"The largest flock I've seen is about 5000. In the distance it looks like a swarm of insects until you work out that that's so many thousands of budgies.

The ABC says there have been reports of flocks of up to 15,000 budgies at waterholes from Alice Springs to Barrow Creek.

Mr Molyneux said the birds are thriving on abundant seeding grass across the region.

"We're coming into the breeding season now so those large numbers will breed so we can probably expect this to go on for a little bit," he said.