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a cocky conversation

Description: The Rainbow Lorikeet is unmistakable with its bright red beak and colourful plumage. Both sexes look alike, with a blue (mauve) head and belly, green wings, tail and back, and an orange/yellow breast. They are often seen in loud and fast-moving flocks, or in communal roosts at dusk.

Similar species: Rainbow Lorikeets are such colourful parrots that it is hard to mistake them for other species. The related Scaly-breasted Lorikeet is similar in size and shape, but can be distinguished by its all-green head and body.

Distribution: The Rainbow Lorikeet occurs in coastal regions across northern and eastern Australia, with a local population in Perth (Western Australia), initiated from aviary releases.

Habitat: The Rainbow Lorikeet is found in a wide range of treed habitats including rainforest and woodlands, as well as in well-treed urban areas.

Seasonal movements: Largely sedentary with some nomadic movements in response to seasonal flowering or fruiting of plants.

Feeding: The Rainbow Lorikeet mostly forages on the flowers of shrubs or trees to harvest nectar and pollen, but also eats fruits (go ape over mangoes), seeds and some insects.

Breeding: The eggs of the Rainbow Lorikeet are laid on chewed, decayed wood, usually in a hollow limb of a eucalypt tree. Both sexes prepare the nest cavity and feed the young, but only the female incubates the eggs.

Minimum Size: 28cm

Maximum Size: 32cm

Average size: 30cm

Average weight: 133g

Breeding season: June to January

Clutch Size: 2

Incubation: 23 days

Nestling Period: 45 days

(Source: www.birdsinbackyards.net )

 

Thank you to Cris Buscaglia Lenz for making the texture freely available. www.flickr.com/photos/crisbuscagliacom/8371907766/in/set-...

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Uploaded on August 27, 2013
Taken on December 21, 2012