I havent been able to find much information on the parliament of Handa but did find some information of a similar practice in St Kilda..

Decisions concerning all matters were made by an informal meeting that took place each weekday morning - known as the `St Kilda Parliament' it consisted of all the adult males on the island. It had no rules, no chairman and 'members' arrived in there own time. Once assembled the 'parliament' would consider the work to be done that day. The islands' schoolmaster in 1889 wrote that the parliament 'very much resembles our Honourable British Parliament in being able to waste any amount of precious time over a very small matter while on the other hand they can pass a Bill before it is well introduced''
www.utopia-britannica.org.uk/pages/StKilda.htm

Women in St Kilda did meet each day for an informal meeting and I did find out that in Handa the queen did have the last say in all disputes!




parliament of Handa / hierarchy/ location of birds





When thinking of the parliament on Handa I began to think of the current tenants of Handa and the hierarchy of the birds position on the stack.

colony...company ....flock....parliament... ...party

These terms are not group names for a particular type of bird,but have been commonly used for many different types: