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Have you ever seen the beautiful Rainbow Lorikeet?

      (Also known as Trichoglossus haemotodus)

There are no prizes for guessing where this lively parrot got its name! Their “rainbow” brightness is spectacular. These are noisy birds that flock together, often hanging like acrobats upside-down from branches as they feed. Visitors from other countries must wonder to see such beautiful parrots, not only in the forests but also in many city gardens and backyards.

what do they look like? Rainbow lorikeets have blue heads and bellies, orange chests, green backs, and green wings with red shoulders and red and yellow underneath. They have bright red eyes and red beaks. Their grey feet and toes are the only dull bits. The red-collared lorikeet is a rainbow lorikeet that has an orange-red “collar” across its chest and behind the head. 

Above: Lorikeets use hollow trees and branches as nesting sites. 

below: A lorikeet preening.

 Size: Both males and females reach a length of 31 centimetres  (including the long tail).

 Call: When they get together, these birds are noisy! As they fly, they screech almost constantly and when feeding, chatter away, still screeching, but a little more quietly. When they are resting, lorikeets twitter to themselves and to each other.

 What do they eat? A lorikeet’s brush-tipped tongue has bristles on the end, which help the parrot to “brush” flowers and eat pollen and nectar. As they climb along branches, lorikeets also seize insects. During the day they fly up to 50 kilometres in search of food. They mainly feed in the early morning and late afternoon, resting and preening during the day.

Where do they live? Rainbow lorikeets live in woodlands, rainforests, paperbark and eucalypt forests, mangroves and along rivers where there are plenty of flowering trees. They are found along the east coast of Australia and have been introduced to Perth in Western Australia. The red-collared form of the rainbow lorikeet lives across the top end of the Northern Territory and into the Kimberley region of Western Australia.

Nesting and caring for young: Lorikeets bond for life. They find a nesting hollow close to water and use their beaks to scrape wood from inside the hollow. This wood “dust” provides a soft bed onto which the female lays two eggs. While the female minds the eggs, the male feeds her by regurgitation. He stays with her in the hollow at night. The young lorikeets leave the nest about eight weeks after they hatch.

Predators: Predatory birds like the brown falcon and fast-flying peregrine falcon are a danger to these lorikeets. While lorikeets clamber through the tree branches in search of food or nest in their hollows, snakes (such as pythons) may grab them.

What is their status? Common in the north, less common in the south.