Peg Britton emailed me yesterday evening to tell me she'd just seen Parrots in the Land of Oz on PBS.

So I checked the local Louisiana Public Broadcasting schedule. I woke at 2 a.m. this morning to catch the show. It will air again at 2 a.m. on February 3.

There was a segment on the Australian Eclectus, which is Lucy's close cousin. The show focused on one pair they'd been watching for some time. The female has seven of those handsome green boys servicing her, both sexually and bringing food to the nest during confinement. However, 19 of 24 chicks they've observed were offspring of the same mate.

What she might not know is that he attends four other females, too. Which might explain why he roams a territory of 40 square miles searching for food.

It would seem that Lucy's, ah, sexual proclivities are in order.

There were segments on budgerigars, galahs (finally heard that pronunciation), a few cockatoos (destructive to farm crops), cockatiels, some parrots who survive on the southern coast. The Palm cockatoo rated a long segment because it is the oldest parrot in Australia and uses a tool -- the male uses a stick to beat on the nest. Apparently the female can tell by the sound whether a nest might be worth looking into. Then he sometimes shreds the stick into the nest for nesting materials.

The show was worth an hour in the middle of the night. You might prefer to use a recorder. Thanks, Peg.