The Indigenous Desert Alliance held a survey to look for the rare birds, with Ngururrpa Rangers deploying camera traps and song meters in the Ngururrpa Indigenous Protected Area. They discovered not only a population of 50 night parrots but also active nests.

The study spanned three years, from 2020 to 2023, and found evidence of night parrots in 17 areas.

Part of the reason that night parrots are so elusive is that they’re nocturnal. During the day, they hide in dense, old-growth spinifex hummocks, making them very hard to spot. At night, the birds use the cover of darkness to hunt insects while avoiding predators.