Only five could be classed as common: the eastern rosella, crimson rosella, rainbow lorikeet, red-rumped parrot and musk lorikeet.

All can be found without too much trouble, although the red-rumped parrot and musk lorikeet have restricted distributions locally.

The red-rumped parrot can be found on the southern side of Lake Burrumbeet, in open country north of Clunes, and also around Lexton and Lake Goldsmith.

The musk lorikeet is common in flowering eucalypts in Ballarat in summer, but in winter it is most easily found in the Clunes area, especially where eucalypts are flowering.

Scarcer local parrots are the blue-winged parrot, purple-crowned lorikeet, little lorikeet and swift parrot.

Local rarities are king parrot, cockatiel, budgerigar, elegant parrot and turquoise parrot. The scarcer species cannot be found easily, but they are seen in most years. The two lorikeets and the swift parrot are again found around Clunes when eucalypts are flowering. The blue-winged parrot is found in a variety of habitats, from the Wombat forest to woodland around Linton and open country on the basalt plains.

It is not a rare bird, but it cannot often be easily found because it is not resident year-round at many places.

Among the rarities is the budgerigar, which turns up infrequently in the Clunes area.

The king parrot seems to be resident in small numbers in the town of Blackwood, but other sightings are few. Its occurrence at Blackwood has been questioned, with some people thinking it might have become established from aviary escapees.

The cockatiel is a rarity of open plains in some dry years, while the elegant parrot and the turquoise parrot are true rarities here.

An olive-backed oriole at the end of May is unexpected. An immature one was found last weekend on a group bird outing to the Newstead area.

The oriole is a migrant, arriving from northern Australia in early spring, departing January or February.

Forests of central Victoria seem to be the headquarters of the olive-backed oriole each spring. While there are irregular sightings over winter, most orioles leave Victoria altogether during the colder months. Orioles visit several localities around Ballarat each year.

After Newstead, the bird observers stopped for a short time at Campbelltown, where species such as diamond firetail, Australian hobby, flame robin, jacky winter and crested shrike tit were among 20 seen.