The fig tree out front at Mungumby Lodge homestead has become a kind of living balcony over the creek — broad branches leaning across the pool, roots gripping the bank, fruit drawing in a constant procession of birds. But the smallest and most charismatic visitors are always the Cyclopsitta diophthalma, the Double-eyed Fig Parrots.
They arrive quietly at first, little green flashes vanishing into the foliage almost as soon as they appear. Then comes the chatter — sharp, tzeet, tzeet, quick calls drifting above the sound of the creek below. Despite their size, they carry enormous personality, scrambling through the figs upside down and sideways with absolute determination, scattering bits of fruit into the pool beneath them.
In the morning light, the males catch the sun with tiny bursts of red and blue around the face, while the dense green plumage makes them nearly impossible to spot once they stop moving. Watching them from the veranda feels less like birdwatching and more like discovering a secret hidden in plain sight.
The old fig tree presiding over the creek seems to hold its own small ecosystem together, and for a few moments each day, the Double-eyed Fig Parrots become the unmistakable stars of it.
