LORIKEETS
This year we have so much flower around; in gardens, along roadsides, high in trees and all over the ground through the bushy areas, and the blossom feeding birds are having a wonderful time.
Musk Lorikeets (Glossopsitta concinna) are common around Kilmore, now. They were not so when I first came to the area thirty five years ago. They are an odd looking little birds, with their stumpy tails and noisy voices. It is fascinating to watch them as they fly rapidly past. I can hear them coming from quite a distance before they noisily twitter past and are gone, chattering all the time like a classroom of grade one children. Even when they are busy feeding they constantly chatter to each other.
I watched this small group feeding on a red flowering gum tree alongside the Kilmore Cricket Ground. The tree was smothered in red flower and the contrast between the parrots and the tree was as bright and glaring as a Jenny Kee cardigan.
The psitta part of their name is a Greek word referring to parrots. I came across a reference to a bird called a "The Psitta, 'Chatterbird'. http://www.santharia.com/bestiary/psitta.htm Very appropriate.
Alongside the musk lorikeets in the same tree were a large group of Rainbow Lorikeets (Trichoglossus haematodus) Their genus name is derived from the Greek terms tricho- "hair", and glõssa
"tongue" Hmmm! It was interesting for me to see they and the Musk Lorikeets in the same small tree. They seemed quite happy to forage there together. The only dispute occurred when a wattle bird tried to join the party. It is not often one sees a wattle bird put off by others. He did not stay very long, too much noise I imagine.
