Ring around the collar (aka L is for lorikeet)

Before we left Minnesota, I pulled out articles from Scott’s old Australian Geographics. Mostly I looked for wildlife and national park articles. One article was on lorikeets. I enjoyed the information and descriptors so wanted to share.  Most of the lorikeet information below is from Australian Geographic, Rainbows in Flight, July-Sept 2001. Photos are ours. 

“Propelled by a high-energy intake of pollen and nectar, their wild shrieks ricocheting from tree to tree…”

This line makes me happier about actually capturing honeyeaters and their like on camera as they are also on sugar highs! 

The article also mentions their constant squabbling. “Parrots with an attitude”. 

I also learned that the color of their collars identify the subspecies. Red collars are the northern tribe. In our area, we see green or yellow-green. 

Lorikeets are very acrobatic due to their short, strong legs, extremely flexible hips and unusual feet. Perching birds have 3 forward pointing toes along with a single hind toe. Lorikeets and other parrots have 2 pairs of opposed clawed toes. They also use their hooked beak as an extra foot. This means they can free up a foot to drag a blossom closer to their beak or hang as desired.

What I don’t have a picture of is their “hairy-tongue”. The numerous papillae (bristles) lap up the pollen and nectar. These papillae are folded back down when not in use. 

Parrots, in general, also have special “powder-down” feathers. These disintegrate to form a waxy powder. With preening, the powder is spread through the other feathers.  Self grooming is hard so pairs bond by grooming each other.

We are staying Swansea a few more days. It turns out Scott's cousin lives in the area and he was able to meet us for coffee yesterday. We saw him 30 years ago and not much contact since. Hoping we can catch up again a bit more often. 

The place (house and yard) has had workmen in and out. Gus is not a fan. So far, we have had someone to mow the lawn and two days worth of landscapers. Today is also the tile replacement guy. He is back tomorrow, as well. I so want to get in the pool but not while all this happening. I can't complain too much - have been in the water most days. 

On the Cobargo house front, they have found the bore (water drilling license) and things are moving forward!

We did head out this morning to a lagoon and wetlands. Saw a few more birds and heard a lot of whipbirds (no sightings).

Back to the birds, L is also for Large billed scrub wren. Not that big of a bill on not very big bird but it is what it is. You can see the toes on this one - definitely a perching bird!

We do have to do more backwards alphabet. We have now seen figbirds in Swansea.  Australasian figbirds, that is, not to be confused with the Timor figbird which isn't found in Australia. We found this male in the same little park (basically one empty lot's worth of long grass and a bench) in which Gus likes to do his business. (Pooping in the yard is frowned upon after all this maintenance 😉). 

Yes, he IS a perching bird with three toes in the front. Apparently figbirds are considered old world orioles. This guy was singing his heart out:

Enough for now. This large bill wren is out of here!