This morning, as I was working inside, I heard the call of one of my favourite parrots, the Eastern Rosella, pictured above (but not my photo). They are not all that common on the coast, so I am always really pleased and excited when they visit my front yard. BUT...there were 5 of them , squabbling and wabbling away, in my tallest melaleuca shrub!! How fantastic was that!! They mate for life, and so are usually seen in even-numbered flocks, so it got me wondering why there was an odd number of birds in this flock. They are seed-eaters.
This bird is much more common and is seen AND heard in large flocks, eating the honey out of flowers of plants and trees such as bottlebrush, banksia and eucalypt. It's the Rainbow Lorrikeet, another parrot, but is a nectar-eater.
