Wonga pigeons stick together, they always stick together for life and whatever they do, they always do it together. If they’re building a nest, they build it together. If they’re rearing their young, they do it together too.

Two little pigeons decided they wanted to go and gather food this morning. So these two little Wonga pigeons were walking around on the ground, gathering food and they had a rule: never get out of one another pigeon's sight. 

As they were picking around, the other pigeon looked up and she couldn’t see her mate, but she didn’t take any notice for a little while, so she continues to gather food on her own. She kept looking up every so often, then after a while she started to worry about her mate, because there was no sign of him.

She started calling out and still no reply. This went on for a little while and their rule was never to fly up above the canopy of the trees because the hawks would get them. So she flitted around in the lower branches, calling out to her mate and still no reply. She got to the stage where she thought ‘the only thing I can do now is fly up above the top of the trees and have a look up there’.

As she flew up above the tree tops, sure enough, the big hawk grabbed her and he grabbed her on the breast. 

As this big hawk was flying back to his favourite spot to eat this little pigeon, somehow she wriggled and squirmed and broke free of his grip. As she tore away from the hawk, she also tore her breast open too and started bleeding.

She couldn’t fly anymore because she was wounded, so she floated down to the ground and the first thing she landed on was the White Waratah. The blood from her wounds started to turn that White Waratah red.

So as she went from Waratah to Waratah to White Waratah, they all became red. So that little Wonga never found her mate and she died eventually herself, but that’s how the White Waratah’s turned red.