A mess of lorikeets (3rd June)

Scaly-breasted Lorikeets are not common in Victoria but Woodlands Drive in Ocean Grove on the Bellarine Peninsula is a known hot-spot for them. They take some finding though, not because lorikeets are hard to find on Woodlands Drive but because the cross-breeding of lorikeets there is rampant and finding one that is true to species is not easy.

Every house in the street seems to have a large number of eucalypts and at the moment most of them are in flower. In these trees we found both Scaly-breasted and Rainbow Lorikeets as well as Scaly-breasted x Rainbow x Little x Purple-crowned x and a few we could not immediately recognise. And the crosses seemed random and, in some cases multiple. If you ever want to see innumerable variations upon a lorikeet theme head for Woodlands Drive.

This bird looks very much like a real Scaly-breasted Lorikeet ....

and this bird looks like areal  Rainbow Lorikeet

but these two are something different. The front bird looks like a Rainbow x Scaly-breasted, but what about the other bird? Scaly-breasted x Rainbow x Purple-crowned Lorikeet x? If so why the long red crown? Is there also something else in there?

On this bird the whole face and crown are red and it has a complete yellow collar. The breast colour suggests some Rainbow. Perhaps it is Little x Purple-crowned x Rainbow?

This one shows Scaly-breasted, Rainbow and Purple-crowned colours

And again this bird looks good for a pure Rainbow, but how pure seeing there is so much cross breeding going on in Woodland Drive.

All images and text © Jenny Spry