Grace Brown - Rainbow Lorikeet Spirit - Framed in White Tasmanian Oak
Rainbow Lorikeets have so many beautiful colours. This painting took me so long to get just the right detail. Surrounding those three beautiful little birds are all the native flowers they eat in the wild and my meeting place indigenous connection dots.
Lorikeets don’t eat nuts or seeds they feast on the many flowers that they can find. Nuts and seeds are actually bad for Lorikeets. The Rainbow Lorikeet’s tongue is like a bristle brush. Instead, it uses its bristle brush tongue to extract sweet sticky nectar and pollen from deep within Australia native flowers. Like a young child with a messy ice-cream cone, Lorikeets get the nectar and pollen all over their heads.
Rainbow Lorikeets live in coastal regions across northern and eastern Australia. There is a local population in Perth which is believed to have started from an aviary release. They nest in hollow limbs of eucalypt trees and also chewed decayed wood and eat some bugs.
The best way to attract Rainbow Lorikeets to your garden is to grow native plants.