Betrisher
Well-known member
- Jun 3, 2013
- 4,253
- 180
- Parrots
- Dominic: Galah(RIP: 1981-2018); The Lovies: Four Blue Masked Lovebirds; Barney and Madge (The Beaks): Alexandrines; Miss Rosetta Stone: Little Corella
I was sitting doing my homework (studying Ancient Greek this year) when my son came flying into my room bellowing 'Quick Mum! There's all these tiny little green birds in the tree! I don't know what they are!' He said they were green with flashes of yellow and had red bands around their heads.
So we all trooped out and studied the big Lemon-scented gum tree in the corner of the yard. It's in blossom now and it's quite a magnet for all the blossom-feeders around (including bats). Today at three o'clock, there were the usual zillions of Rainbow and Scaly-breasted Lorikeets, but we estimated there were also somewhere between fifty and a hundred little Musk Lorikeets as well.
Hooray!!!
Musk Lorikeets are rarely ever noticed by most people because they are birds of the treetops. They zot from tall treetop to tall treetop in search of nectar, which they collect from the flowers with their brush-tongues. All you would see of them on most occasions would be a green blur streaking across the sky and the fading sound of their high-pitched shrieks.
But not today! All the little darlings were bent on gobbling up as much nectar as they could get out of our gum blossoms. They crawled all over the tree and were close enough that we got a really good look at them. When they open their wings, you see a lovely flash of golden yellow which streaks the flanks of their bodies. They have a wide red band that goes from the lores across the eyes and down toward the neck. I've included a link to the Wikipedia article on them, but the picture doesn't do these birds justice. Flitting around in the afternoon sunshine, they look exactly like tiny jewels. While the Rainbows certainly live up to their name, the Musk Lorikeets seem to have a more vibrant green which shows up their other colours more vividly.
My kids and I spent nearly an hour gawping at the bounty of beautiful birds in our tree. Suddenly, *some*thing triggered the flock and they left as one in a swift, undulating flight and landed about a mile away in a very tall Eucalyptus tree in the next suburb. We could still hear them calling and shrieking at each other all that distance away! You can bet I'll be watching out for the Musk Lorikeets again tomorrow! Maybe hubby will be able to get a decent photo for me?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musk_...h1yR8f62TD-28cdzwyuss2NhT3W-LfXnq0QT7Xol4BogA
PS. The scientific name of the Musk Lorikeet is _Glossopsittacus concinna_ from the Greek 'parrot-tongued' and the Latin 'elegant'.
cf. Rainbow Lorikeet: _Trichoglossus haematodus_ from the Greek 'hairy tongued' and the Latin 'blood red'.
The bloody smarty-emu taxonomists have changed the Rainbow Lorikeet's name recently and re-named the species as 'moluccanus'. Considering the bird's distribution is heftiest *away* from the Straits of Molucca, I refuse to use it! So there!
Betrisher
So we all trooped out and studied the big Lemon-scented gum tree in the corner of the yard. It's in blossom now and it's quite a magnet for all the blossom-feeders around (including bats). Today at three o'clock, there were the usual zillions of Rainbow and Scaly-breasted Lorikeets, but we estimated there were also somewhere between fifty and a hundred little Musk Lorikeets as well.
Hooray!!!
Musk Lorikeets are rarely ever noticed by most people because they are birds of the treetops. They zot from tall treetop to tall treetop in search of nectar, which they collect from the flowers with their brush-tongues. All you would see of them on most occasions would be a green blur streaking across the sky and the fading sound of their high-pitched shrieks.
But not today! All the little darlings were bent on gobbling up as much nectar as they could get out of our gum blossoms. They crawled all over the tree and were close enough that we got a really good look at them. When they open their wings, you see a lovely flash of golden yellow which streaks the flanks of their bodies. They have a wide red band that goes from the lores across the eyes and down toward the neck. I've included a link to the Wikipedia article on them, but the picture doesn't do these birds justice. Flitting around in the afternoon sunshine, they look exactly like tiny jewels. While the Rainbows certainly live up to their name, the Musk Lorikeets seem to have a more vibrant green which shows up their other colours more vividly.
My kids and I spent nearly an hour gawping at the bounty of beautiful birds in our tree. Suddenly, *some*thing triggered the flock and they left as one in a swift, undulating flight and landed about a mile away in a very tall Eucalyptus tree in the next suburb. We could still hear them calling and shrieking at each other all that distance away! You can bet I'll be watching out for the Musk Lorikeets again tomorrow! Maybe hubby will be able to get a decent photo for me?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musk_...h1yR8f62TD-28cdzwyuss2NhT3W-LfXnq0QT7Xol4BogA
PS. The scientific name of the Musk Lorikeet is _Glossopsittacus concinna_ from the Greek 'parrot-tongued' and the Latin 'elegant'.
cf. Rainbow Lorikeet: _Trichoglossus haematodus_ from the Greek 'hairy tongued' and the Latin 'blood red'.
The bloody smarty-emu taxonomists have changed the Rainbow Lorikeet's name recently and re-named the species as 'moluccanus'. Considering the bird's distribution is heftiest *away* from the Straits of Molucca, I refuse to use it! So there!
Betrisher
