Rainbow Lorikeet (4/24)

PSITTACIFORMES: Psittacidae

Trichoglossus haematodus  

In J A Leach's day, Rainbow Lorikeets were called Blue Mountain Parrots. He writes about them:

It has been described as a "noble bird, gorgeously apparelled." Its vernacular name of Blue-bellied Lorikeet has been altered to Blue Mountain Lorikeet. We found these birds nesting in the big sugar-gums bordering Warunda Creek, Eyre Peninsula. They keenly and noisily resented our curiosity, and screeched much as we tried to discover them amongst the green foliage. Though so gaudy, they were picked out with difficulty. This bird was very troublesome in my garden at Bengworden, near the Gippsland Lakes, where, when the apples were about the size of marbles, they tore them to pieces to get the developing "pips." In common with the other members of the family, they have a swift, direct flight, and screech much when flying. The "Green Keets," generally called "Green Leeks," which are so very numerous at times, are often accompanied by two other Lorikeets, the Little and Purple-crowned Lorikeets. These green birds hang, head down, among the eucalyptus leaves, and brush up the honey from the flowers with their brush tongue. They follow the flowering of the eucalypts from district to district, and since the eucalypts flower at irregular intervals, these birds are not so regular in their movements as Swifts, Snipe, Curlews, Cuckoos, and other migratory birds. For this reason the birds may be absent from a district for some years, and then suddenly appear again in great numbers.

An Australian Bird Book, 1912, 2nd Ed. p79.
by J A Leach, M.Sc (1870-1929).