In the lonely spinifex grasslands of a sparsely populated area near the border between Western Queensland and the Northern Territory, a bird so elusive it was thought lost to science for more than a century has once again revealed itself.
But fleetingly, and only to the unblinking eye of a remote camera.
The critical find for conservationists came earlier this month after Bush Heritage Australia researchers confirmed three photographs captured on Maiawali Country at Pullen Pullen Special Wildlife Reserve had captured one of the world's rarest and most cryptic birds: the near-mythical night parrot.
The Pezoporus occidentalis is critically endangered, nocturnal, lives in arid zones and is mostly ground-dwelling.
It has been nicknamed, among others, the porcupine parrot, the solitaire parrot and the midnight cockatoo.
The Smithsonian Institution has labelled it "the planet's most elusive bird", and its continued existence captivates ornithologists worldwide.
"Perhaps unfairly, they've been described as a fat budgie," said Nick Leseberg, an ecologist and Night Parrot specialist with Bush Heritage.
"But they're actually very beautifully patterned. They are bright green above, yellow on their belly, and across their entire body, they have these incredible patterns of black and yellow speckles, dots and bars."
It is this plumage that helps the species disappear into the spiky spinifex hummocks of the remote Australian outback.
By day, Night Parrots hide and roost unseen in natural shelters formed by clumps of the dense, spiky grass, only emerging after dark to forage.
Because of their extremely low numbers, shyness and remote habitat, photographing them has proven near impossible.
The recent images are also proof of life and so hold a deep significance for Dr Leseberg, who has been studying the bird for a decade and has only seen one five or six times with his own eyes and "managed to photograph it well twice".
"They occur in some of the remotest parts of Australia. They are incredibly difficult to monitor. This recent sighting tells us that the birds are still around," he said.
"We know they are calling and detect them on our sound recorders. Knowing they are at certain locations at certain times also tells us about their behaviour."
He is now reviewing sound recordings made near the trail camera to find out whether the bird was calling at that moment - potentially indicating something about its patterns and movements.
For one thing, Dr Leseberg's observations of the night parrot's poor vision have previously helped to explain why they have settled in dense, open spinifex environments, where they tend to run rather than fly.
"Because you can't watch night parrots like you can other diurnal birds, it's these little snippets of data we have to interrogate to get information about their behaviour. If the bird was calling, what was it doing? Perhaps looking for a new territory or something," Dr Leseberg said.
The night parrot has a history steeped in mystery.
It was first described scientifically in 1845, but its numbers nosedived profoundly over the next 60 years or so due to the destruction of native grasslands by pastoralists forging the new frontier and an increased number of feral predators.
Then, poof, it just disappeared from documented sightings for a century, and reports of sightings were dismissed as hearsay or misidentifications of budgerigars and grass parrots.
But then it was rediscovered 12 years ago, although the exact location of a couple of isolated populations is tightly held by researchers keen to protect the bird's very existence.
The recent images are just the third time a bird has been snapped by a remote camera at Pullen Pullen.
With numbers small and confined, and potentially decreasing, Dr Leseberg admits it is "a good question" when asked how many of the species are alive, with precise numbers elusive.
"At any one time, we've only been able to put our finger on tens of birds," he said.
"The bird has a history of being almost impossible to study, which adds to the fascination around it."
If pressed, he would estimate the population in the low to mid-hundreds.
The night parrot was upgraded from endangered to critically endangered, the most severe classification before a species is declared extinct, on the updated federal government list of threatened species and ecosystems on September 5, mainly due to the very small number of mature birds remaining.
Dr Leseberg emphasises that the recent change in conservation status to critically endangered is not due to a sudden population drop, but rather improved science and detection methods.
Rediscoveries have been scattered and sporadic in the remote outback, the most promising finding away from Pullen Pullen emerged with a study published in 2024 reporting up to 50 night parrots in a remote Indigenous Protected Area in the Great Sandy Desert of Western Australia - the largest known single population of the species.
Crucial to locating these new populations, along with significant discoveries such as the presence of nests and fledglings, has been the development of software by Dr Leseberg to recognise night parrot calls.
Each sighting is a Eureka moment because the species avoids detection so completely.
The site where the recent photos were captured is legally protected. Pullen Pullen was purchased by the not-for-profit Bush Heritage Australia in 2016, and by 2020, it was declared the first Special Wildlife Reserve under Queensland law.
The law is unique to Queensland and grants private land protections equivalent to a national park, barring mining, timber harvesting, or grazing and feral predator control, particularly for cats, and fire management programs are key to it remaining a night parrot sanctuary.
Bush Heritage purchased the parcel specifically to create an exclusive conservation zone so it can, in this case, study the night parrot to build an ecological profile of the species that can then be used to protect it.
The most recent pictures were captured by a remote camera on 11 June this year and discovered in early September.
For Dr Leseberg and others involved in night parrot research, each new image, each recorded call, is both a confirmation and a question.
"These birds are incredibly special. Knowing they are still out there is what keeps us going," he reflected.