Lorikeets; the flash mob

Parrots are surely among the great treats of living in Australia. There are more than forty Australian species in the family Psittaculidae, which collectively cover the entire continent in every habitat. They include some of the most familiar and conspicuous Australian birds, prominent in the big cities, and also some of the rarest, which most of us never see. 

Distinct among these are the seven species of lorikeets; wherever you like in Australia, you are likely to be familiar with at least one or two of them. (To cover myself I should say that that number is technically eight, but the Coconut Lorikeet Trichoglossus haematodus is really a New Guinea bird which visits the Australian Torres Strait Islands.) There are many more species of the sub-group, including the short-tailed lories, in New Guinea and its associated islands.

'Lory' and 'lorikeet' are clearly closely related terms and in fact lory came first, though not used in Australia, from Malay luri, simply referring to a parrot. The 'keet' was added in English as a diminutive (think of parrot and parakeet). It too was first applied to birds from the Malay Peninsula, Indonesia and New Guinea, but was taken up in Australia soon afterwards.                    

Lorikeets are generally small parrots, long-tailed and brilliantly coloured, which feed in the foliage on flowers - both nectar and pollen - and soft fruit. (Except of course for those which have become accustomed to coming to back yard feeders, of which more anon.) They have brush-tipped tongues (like honeyeaters and woodswallows) to harvest pollen and take up nectar by capillary action. Most - and probably all, prior to European settlement - are nomadic, following the blossoms.

Scaly-breasted Lorikeet Trichoglossus chlorolepidotus, Goondiwindi, southern Queensland.

Varied Lorikeet Psitteuteles versicolor, Kakadu NP, Northern Territory.
Typically of lorikeets, this little tropical species seems just as happy upside down as not.

They have zygodactylous feet - which is to say that the inner two toes point forward and the outer two backwards - which are excellent for clambering around branches. 

This Rainbow Lorikeet Trichoglossus moluccanus demonstrates the feet reasonably well.
It is feeding on an introduced Coral Tree Erythrina x sykesii near Nowra
in southern New South Wales. The big pea flowers of this very widespread tropical and subtropical
genus evolved to be pollinated by birds, including parrots.
(This one however will not be helped by the lorikeet - it is a sterile hybrid which seemingly
arose in New Zealand from species introduced there).

Perhaps these Musk Lorikeets Glossopsitta concinna, at Rosedale on the New South Wales
south coast, show their foot structure to better advantage here.

Like most parrots, lorikeets are hollow nesters, using hollows in both trunks and branch spouts.

Rainbow Lorikeet at nesting hollow in tree, Callum Brae NR, Canberra.

This next one however surprised me. Some other parrots excavate ground termite mounds for nests, and other birds such as kingfishers use tree termite nests which they smash into with their bills at full tilt (ouch). But I wasn't aware of lorikeets digging out such a nest until earlier this year.

Rainbow Lorikeet at excavated aerial termite mound, Port Macquarie, New South Wales.

Let's stay with Rainbow Lorikeets for now, as they are not only the best-known lorikeet, but one of Australia's most recognisable birds. They were the first Australian lorikeet to be scientifically described, from Sydney in 1788.

Rainbow Lorikeets feeding on flowering Xanthorrhoea spike,
Currarong, south coast NSW.

 

They are present in every Australian state and territory capital except Darwin, where they are replaced by the closely related Red-collared Lorikeet. They have been introduced to Perth and Hobart and are abundant in Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, including the inner cities. In Canberra they are just taking hold; we saw them at our place for the first time last year and as shown in the photo above they are starting to breed here. I grew up in Adelaide but hardly ever saw them there - when the Sugar Gums Eucalyptus cladocalyx were flowering in Botanic Park they mysteriously but unfailingly appeared, but I've no idea from where. Now they seem to dominate the skies there.

They are moving inland at a sometimes startling pace too - it seems that every time I travel I encounter them in inland places where I've not previously seen them. They are one of the world's most gorgeous parrots but they are also highly aggressive and fight other species for food sources, and perhaps more significantly for nesting hollows. I love seeing them but am apprehensive about what their arrival might mean for Canberra bird life. 

They readily learn to come to feeders and love big-flowering hybrid native plant species.

Rainbow Lorikeets coming to seed at Broulee, NSW south coast.

Rainbow Lorikeet on bottlebrush, Callistemon sp., Rosedale.

Until recently the Red-collared Lorikeet Trichoglossus rubritorquis, of the northern tropics from the western Queensland border to the Kimberley, was lumped with the Rainbow Lorikeet, but we now recognise it as a separate species.

Red-collared Lorikeet on Umbrella Tree Schefflera actinophylla blossoms, Darwin.
This is a common bird throughout Darwin and the Top End.

Red-collared Lorikeets coming to water at a campground,
Victoria River, East Kimberley, Northern Territory.

The third member of the genus Trichoglossus in Australia (there are another nine species to the north of here) is the Scaly-breasted Lorikeet that we met earlier. This is an altogether more demure bird (at least by lorikeet standards!) than the Rainbows and notably smaller; the two often feed together however. It is found along much of the east coast north of about Sydney (though they have been seen in Canberra and I gather there's a feral population in Melbourne). While feeding it is essentially green except for the red bill and a shoulder flash, but in flight the underwing is also strikingly red-orange.

Scaly-breasted Lorikeet showing its scaly breast and red bill, Mount Molloy,
North Queensland.

Scaly-breasted Lorikeets feeding on street trees, Mullumbimby, northern NSW.

The other four species are considerably smaller and tend to give way to their bigger cousins. Probably the most familiar of these is the Musk Lorikeet Glossopsitta concinna, the only one of its genus. They are common and widespread in south-eastern Australia from Adelaide to north of Brisbane, but I suspect they are often overlooked as they flash overhead, small and green, without the red undersides of the bigger lorikeets. They have adapted well to suburbia (not so much the inner cities) but it is likely they are struggling there against the growing wave of Rainbow Lorikeets. 

I recall, as a boy, them coming (along with Purple-crowned Lorikeets) in flocks to feed on our apricots and peaches as they ripened. Mum always reckoned she was happy to share, but objected to them taking a bite from each fruit to test its ripeness. 

Musk Lorikeet on Eucalyptus ficifolia blossoms (a planted street tree from
Western Australia), Coles Bay Tasmania. The red forehead and cheeks define it.

The genus Parvipsitta ('small parrot') is appropriately named, both species being only about 15cm long. I grew up with Purple-crowned Lorikeets (P. porphyrocephala) - as I said earlier, they visited our Adelaide backyard fruit trees - but I don't often see them these days. They live to the west of here, in woodlands and mallee across southern Australia. In Western Australia they are the only naturally-occurring lorikeet and so utilise the wet forests as well. To experience a flowering Karri forest (E. diversicolor) abuzz with shimmering flocks of Purple-crowneds pollinating in the crowns, is one not to be forgotten.

Unfortunately I have only one very mediocre photo to offer, but in a very minor way it's historic in being one of the very first photos I took with my first digital camera. It was fairly primitive by today's standards, but more importantly I was totally green! They're a lovely little bird and deserve better.

Purple-crowned Lorikeet in flowering street gums (E. fasciculosa), Port Augusta, South Australia.
How I'd love the chance to take that photo now!
The distinctive (and unusual) purple crown can just be seen, though you can't hear
the very distinctive buzzy call.

The other Parvipsitta is the only Australian lorikeet listed as threatened, along with many other southern Australian woodland species. They were only the second Australian lorikeet to be described, just after the Rainbow Lorikeet. The Little Lorikeet P. pusilla (ie 'small little parrot'!) certainly lives up (or down) to its name. Short-tailed, ridiculously quick as the flocks dart into and out of the foliage, they are tiny. It took me until this year to get a photo of them, feeding high in wind-tossed eucalypt flowers on the north-west slopes of NSW. I didn't feel able to properly do this post until I'd got photos of all of them, so was doubly glad to get these.

Little Lorikeets west of Tenterfield, northern New South Wales, above and below.

In flight they can look a bit like Musk Lorikeets, with no red below,
but they are only two thirds the size. The all-red face and green cheeks
are other distinguishing characters.

Finally, one of the most appealing of all lorikeets (which is saying something and is of course very subjective), the Varied Lorikeet of the tropical woodlands west of the Gulf of Carpentaria. It is the only Australian member of its genus, though there are two others in islands to the north. It is small, but a bit bigger than the previous two, and particularly screechy. It is the only small lorikeet in its range, and only the big Red-collared Lorikeet overlaps with it, so there's no chance of mistaking it, even without those fabulous big white goggles! Flocks of them swarm in when the eucalypts are flowering. 

These entertained us for ages in the campground at Gunlom Falls in Kakadu National Park during the hot part of the (when we weren't at the falls).

Varied Lorikeet, Kakadu National Park.
The second photo on this page is probably a better portrait of it, albeit upside down.

Lorikeets, as you will have divined, are among my favourite Australians; a lorikeet day is a good day, and I hope I've been able to introduce you some you may not have yet met. Now that we've just started to be able to travel again, they are another treat to keep your eyes out for!

I think a post right on Christmas is likely to get lost, so my next one will be the last of the year, and feature my traditional New Years Eve round-up of the year with a photo for each month. 

NEXT POSTING THURSDAY 31 DECEMBER.
And remember that you can get a reminder when the next post appears by putting your email address in the Follow by Email box in the top right of this screen.
I'd love to receive your comments - it's easy and you don't need to sign in!

However, this reminder service is becoming increasingly unreliable and I have
no control over it. I keep hearing of people who are no longer getting
notifications of new postings and I'm losing readership presumably as a result.
You might like to set a calendar alert as a back-up to avoid missing out.
Alternatively, if you'd like to send me an email (to calochilus51@internode.on.net)
I can put together a mailing list to send out whenever a post goes up;
I guarantee never to use your address for any other purpose.
Thank you!