Rainbow Lorikeets have always been very common in my yard. I planted grevilleas when I first came here and that brought the Lorikeets in. Then a few months ago I suddenly realized that I wasn't hearing the Lorikeets. The very dry spell last year had taken a toll of all the shrubs in the yard and the grevilleas had stopped flowering for a while. Hence - no Lorikeets - and I missed them! Now the grevilleas have started flowering again and the lorikeets are back.
The callistemons have also been flowering and Lorikeets have also been on them.
P.S. Does anyone know why there is such a range of colors on the fronts of these birds? Is it to do with the age of the birds?
Wow! These are certainly not common birds in my neck of the woods. Fantastic!
ReplyDeleteHi Halcyon, no I guess they wouldn't be common over your way! When I moved here 7 years ago they weren't common to me either.
ReplyDeleteSuch stunning colours. I bet they are just as noisy as all their relatives seem to be.
ReplyDeleteHi Mick
ReplyDeleteI cannot say why your Lorikeets vary from orange to red on their chests.
Good shots, and nicely observed that your flowers dried up and so the Lorikeets went elsewhere.
Cheers
Denis
Hi John, they are noisy and quarrelsome and delightful to listen to and watch! I didn't really know how much I listen to them every day until they were not there.
ReplyDeleteHi Denis, I knew where they went to - over to my neighbor's place who had grevilleas in flower! Now I need to plant another grevillea so that I am not without flowers again!
Be careful what you wish for. Rainbows may be beautiful, but they're also bullies and can become far too much and many of a good thing.
ReplyDeleteColour diffs largely, I guess, product of bird age and plumage age.
Hi Tony, thanks for the info about the color differences in the plumage. There are hundreds (thousands?) of R. Lorikeets around here. Numbers don't seem to have changed since I came here 7 years ago. Mind you - I wouldn't want to start actively feeding them!
ReplyDeleteOh to live in such a place!
ReplyDeleteI get excited when I see the blue of a blue bird or the red on a woodpeckers head!
Great photos!
Thanks Valerie. I really enjoy this place!
ReplyDeleteThy are certainly not common in the UK Mick and I wouldn't mind one or two in my garden to photograph. I guess the colours intensify with aging and time of year as lots of other species do.
ReplyDeleteHi Phil, every country has different "common" birds and often I don't properly appreciate what is right around me. Your ideas of the plumage differences being a result of age and moult sounds right - very similar to what Tony also said.
ReplyDeleteI love the grevilleas- when they are in blossom, have seen them on my trips abroad but it is to cold in the winter for me to have them here in Sweden. And that colorful bird go with that flower and we do not have them to.
ReplyDeleteMB