The stunning Red-Winged Parrot is located across most of NSW, Queensland, the NT and northern WA, as well as parts of New Guinea.

The males have a fascinating courtship display which involves enthusiastically showing off their tramp stamps and then pretending they’ve taken Molly (… or maybe actually taking Molly, this hasn’t been observed, but who knows?)

Now you’re probably thinking that I’m anthropomorphising here, and you’re absolutely right. But what actually happens is really no less ridiculous.

The male will run rings around the female, then pause and delicately reveal a small blue patch of feathers on his lower back that are usually hidden. Once he has her attention, he pulls out the big guns, and started deliberately dilating and contracting his pupils!

This incredible technique is referred to as eye-pinning and is a form of nonverbal communication used by a variety of birds to indicate excitement, fear or curiosity.

I first heard about this when an Attenborough doco featured a Bowerbird in New Guinea performing the preposterous pupillary procedure. If you’ve never seen it, be sure to check it out:

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Red-Winged Parrot (Aprosmictus erythropterus), Kakadu National Park, Australia