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Rainbow Lorikeet

Trichoglossus moluccanus

Rainbow Lorikeets are considered one of the most common birds in eastern Australia. In fact, they're often considered a pest, both due to potential damage to agricultural crops, but also because of how they have increasingly been out-competing other native species, particularly given their adaptability in and around areas of human settlement. Given that description, without knowing the species, you might think of them as we think of House Sparrows in the US...ubiquitous and not necessarily desirable!

However, this common bird is anything BUT common to someone visiting Australia and coming from South Dakota! They really are gorgeous birds, and despite their common nature, I had a lot of fun trying to photograph them. The photo below is a little bittersweet, as it was taken on our last day in Australia. We had an evening flight out of Sydney, and my wife and son were tired from the very aggressive travel schedule of the previous few days. While they stayed at the hotel that day, I walked to Centennial Park in Sydney. I'm SO glad I ignored my own tired state and did it that day, as for an urban park, it's 1) huge 2) has a great variety of habitats, and 3) had a number of bird species I hadn't yet seen in our trip to Australia.

I got quite a few Rainbow Lorikeet photos from Australia, but my favorite is the one below, from this last day in Centennial Park. It was a little after sunrise, there was a dew on a lot of the vegetation, and this guy had a little different appearance on his head and neck because of the dew. I love the lighting, the perch (forgetting the name of this tree, but they loved the sticky fruit/flower that's right to the bird's left), and of course, the beautiful Lorikeet itself. The Rainbow Lorikeets make me wish our "common" birds here in South Dakota were as colorful!

Click here to see more photos from this 2019 Australia trip

Click here for more photos of this species