It’s Time to Cull the Corellas on Kangaroo Island!

A few days ago, I shared a short video showing the scale of the corella flocks around both the Kingscote and Parndana Campuses, and now into the surrounding streets and trees.

Thousands of birds. Eating, sleeping, shitting, squabbling, and procreating like they’ve signed a long-term lease. Every evening they descend on the grass, roost in the trees, fill the air with noise, plus leave behind what can only be described as biological fallout. It’s confronting to live beside, and impossible to ignore.

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Consequently there are many people who exclaim on local social media:

• how the noise affects their sleep,
• how the defecation mess affects their homes (particularly TV aerials!), and
• how living alongside it day after day wears you down.

The incessant noise lasts from sometimes as early as 4pm and may keep going until 10pm at night. It is made worse when people choose or inadvertently rile them up, waking them from the trees and they do manic flight patterns across town, sometimes flying low into nearby road-traffic!

MOST IMPORTANTLY:
There are parents raising questions about the impact on their kids – what they’re breathing in, what they’re exposed to, and whether anyone actually knows the health implications.

Considering the birds are predominately roosting and defecating within and upon the Education Campuses, this issue should be getting more air-time on local radio, more mention during the annual Council Meetings, and (importantly) effective action to remove the issue.

What follows is not opinion or guesswork, but a clear explanation of what I’ve researched (with help from the research abilities of AI) , why these concerns aren’t silly, and what science and public health authorities actually say about large-scale, long-term exposure to mass parrot populations in shared human spaces – and particularly the impact on our children, teachers, and anyone working or living in the flight-zone of these pesky feathered pests!

Psittacosis, corellas, and what happens when the risk is ignored

Psittacosis, sometimes called parrot fever or ornithosis, is a zoonotic bacterial infection caused by Chlamydia psittaci. In Australia, it is most commonly linked to native parrots such as corellas, galahs and cockatoos. Humans contract it by inhaling airborne dust contaminated with infected bird droppings, feathers or respiratory secretions, not by touching birds directly.

There is so much information available about the impact of Australian animals on human health!

Large flocks matter.

When thousands of birds repeatedly roost, feed and defecate in the same place, droppings dry out, break down and become fine particulate dust. Wind, mowing, leaf blowers, sweeping, pressure-cleaning, children running and routine maintenance can all aerosolise that material. This inhalation pathway is exactly how human infection occurs and is the mechanism repeatedly identified in Australian outbreaks.

Importantly, birds do not need to appear sick.

Many parrots infected with Chlamydia psittaci are asymptomatic carriers and shed the bacteria intermittently. Shedding increases when birds are stressed, overcrowded or disturbed, conditions that are common in large urban or semi-urban congregations such as school grounds.

In humans, psittacosis most often presents as a respiratory illness resembling flu or atypical pneumonia.

Symptoms usually begin five to fourteen days after exposure and include fever, chills, severe headache, muscle aches, fatigue, dry cough and shortness of breath. Without treatment, the infection can progress and become serious.

While uncommon, psittacosis can spread beyond the lungs.

In more severe or untreated cases, it can involve other organs, including the liver, heart and brain. Neurological involvement is rare, but it is documented. When the brain is affected, it is usually through inflammation such as encephalitis, rather than direct destruction of brain tissue.

When neurological involvement occurs, symptoms can include confusion, disorientation, severe headache, altered consciousness, agitation, dizziness or seizures. These effects are caused by inflammation, systemic infection, immune response, or secondary factors such as low oxygen levels during severe pneumonia. In both children and adults, these symptoms are medical red flags.

Children can be infected, but adults are more commonly diagnosed, likely due to cumulative exposure or occupational risk. Groundskeepers, cleaners, teachers on yard duty, maintenance staff and others repeatedly exposed to contaminated dust are at higher risk than those with brief or incidental exposure.

The illness is treatable.

Psittacosis responds well to antibiotics, particularly doxycycline, when recognised early. The problem is not treatment failure; the problem is delayed recognition. If clinicians are not told about bird exposure, diagnosis can be missed or delayed, increasing the risk of complications.

This is not about panic. It is about risk management.

Health authorities consistently advise wet cleaning rather than dry sweeping, modified mowing practices, appropriate respiratory protection for staff, and heightened vigilance when large parrot flocks occupy public spaces for prolonged periods. Ignoring the exposure pathway does not remove the risk; it simply blinds people to it.

If multiple people in the same environment develop flu-like symptoms, persistent dry cough, or unexplained pneumonia during ongoing exposure to large parrot flocks, psittacosis should be considered early. Awareness changes outcomes. Silence and dismissal do not.

OK, there’s enough information to scare the bejusus out of local council – I hope!

This information is being provided off the back of extensive research, therefore is freely available to share with teachers, parents, school communities and anyone else directly affected, and I would hope it will travel further – to a minister’s desk.

Doing nothing is no longer a neutral position.

At the very least, serious effort must go into research-led population management and deterrence, whether that’s humane population reduction, habitat redirection, or teaching these birds to roost and feed somewhere other than school grounds.

Yes, we’ve encroached on their territory, and yes, human behaviour, COVID lockdowns, altered water availability and environmental change have likely contributed to this explosion in numbers. But pretending these numbers are normal or sustainable is like ignoring a cracked wall because the house used to be empty.

Humans influenced the problem, and now humans have a responsibility to reverse it – carefully, ethically, and decisively.

Again, feel free to share this information in any format you like to your local council or decision-makers.