38 Tune Your Ear - Lorikeets
About this episode
Lorikeets are loud, fast and easier to hear than identify. This Tune Your Ear episode helps you learn the calls of Australian lorikeets, including Little Lorikeet, Musk Lorikeet, Scaly-breasted Lorikeet and Varied Lorikeet.
Episode illustration: Scaly-breasted Lorikeet
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Kirsty: I would like to acknowledge the resilience of the Wurundjeri people of the Eastern Kulin Nation whose Country this episode was recorded on. I would like to pay my respects to Elders past and present.
Kirsty: Welcome to Weekend Birder. I'm your host, Kirsty Costa. In Episode 28, Richard Hill shared these thoughts.
Richard: Parrots and cockatoos is such a big part of our landscape and the noises they make. I mean, they're something like the Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, the big white cockatoo with a lovely lemon crest. When you look for it and see it, that lovely lemon wash on the underside of the wings of a of a sulphur crested cockatoo. Just a gorgeous bird. And then it opens its mouth and you say, "Holy moly! You know, that's such an awful sound!". And, you know, so the sounds are a big part of our landscape as well. And they don't they often don't sort of really match, do they?
Kirsty: I'm not going to torture your ears with the sound of Australia's cockatoos in this episode of Weekend Birder. Actually, torture is a little bit harsh. I love listening to cockatoos and they remind me that I'm home. Instead, we are going to focus on another member of the parrot family - lorikeets. Seven species of lorikeet live in Australia and they are a wonderful array of colours and sounds. Like the pardalotes that featured in the last episode, ;orikeets can sometimes be a bit hard to see. Listening to each one's call will help us better identify them when we're out birdwatching. The calls that you are about to hear are from around Australia. The pitch and the rhythm of their call might be slightly different to the same species of lorikeet found in your area. Like humans, lorikeets like to say different things to each other, and the calls that we are about to hear might be only one type of lorikeet communication. Okay, let's start by listening to the Little Lorikeet. At the time of this recording, this gorgeous little bird is still to be added to my life list. I use eBird to try and find it, and when I get to that location, it is almost impossible to see. So this episode is going to be as useful for me as it is for you. The Little Lorikeet is Australia's smallest lorikeet. It is bright green and it has a black beak with a red tip. Its face, its forehead and its throat are all red and it can be found scattered across the east coast of Australia. Okay, let's take a listen.
<Recording of Little Lorikeet>
Kirsty: The recording of two Little Lorikeets was by Greg McLaughlan on the Country of the Awabakal and Worimi people near Newcastle in New South Wales. Next up is the Musk Lorikeet. Over the summer these lorikeets love to hang out in my suburb in Victoria and you can also find them in the lower parts of South Australia as well as New South Wales and Queensland. What I love about these lorikeets is that they have a red face mask of feathers, kind of like Zorro. They also have this lovely pastel blue coloured patch above their eye. The reason that I know what Musk Lorikeets look like is because they will hang out lower in a tree and occasionally will be seen munching on fruit trees in people's backyards. Their call is higher pitched than the common Rainbow Lorikeet, and you will notice it's not as sharp as the Little Lorikeet. Let's listen to Musk Lorikeets calling and then taking flight. This recording is by Marc Anderson on Ngarabal Country at Kings Plain National Park in New South Wales.
<Recording of Musk Lorikeet>
Kirsty: Wow! Musk Lorikeets have got an amazing call. Did you also hear the Grey Shrikethrush singing in the background?
<Recording of Grey Shrikethrush>
Kirsty: Bird lovers call it as they see it, and the Purple-crowned Lorikeet does indeed have a purple crown of feathers on the top of its head. It also has yellow spots on its cheeks, a greeny blue breast and red under its wings. It has a longer tail than the Little Lorikeet if that also helps you with your ID. The Purple-crowned Lorikeet lives in the southern part of Australia at the bottom of Western Australia, South Australia and Victoria. Interestingly, it can also pop up in places that it hasn't visited for a while. If there are lots of delicious eucalyptus blossoms to eat. You will notice that the call of the Purple-crowned Lorikeet isn't as metallic sounding as the Little Lorikeet. This recording is also by Marc Anderson at the Stirling Range in Western Australia on Minang and Goreng Country.
<Recording of Purple-crowned Lorikeet>
Kirsty: It's time to listen to Australia's most common lorikeet - the Rainbow Lorikeet. Here is what Sean Dooley from BirdLife Australia told us in Episode 8 of Weekend Birder.
Sean: I mean our most common bird that we see that's recorded in the Aussie Bird Count every year has been the Rainbow Lorikeet. That's the most numerous urban bird in Australia. Now that might make us complacent about, you know, that we think, "Oh yeah, that's a bird you see every day". But you stop and look at a Rainbow Lorikeet. It is a gloriously coloured bird. And I've literally seen overseas birdwatchers weep actually burst into tears when they saw their first Rainbow Lorikeet. And we take that for granted. They're our most common bird.
Kirsty: The Rainbow Lorikeet is hard to miss with its bright red beak and colourful feathers. Both sexes actually look alike with a blue head and belly green wings, tail and back and an orangey yellow breast. Rainbow Lorikeets are found in coastal regions across northern and eastern Australia. And interestingly, there's also a local population in Perth that people think originally came from someone, or some people's, aviaries. You will often find lorikeets roosting, which we've learnt is resting on tree branches in huge flocks that make a very loud racket. Unlike some of the other lorikeets we've listened to, scientists think that Rainbow Lorikeets don't actually travel very far, mostly moving around their local area for food, water and shelter. This recording is by me. I recorded it on my phone while standing in the middle of Royal Park at the center of Melbourne on Wurundjeri Country.
<Recording of Rainbow Lorikeets>
Kirsty: And a few minutes later, here are those same Rainbow Lorikeets having a fight over the eucalyptus flowers above my head.
<Recording of Rainbow Lorikeets>
Kirsty: We are now zooming from the bottom of Australia to the top to listen to the Red-collared Lorikeet. This lorikeet loves the warm weather of the Kimberleys in Western Australia and the Gulf of Carpentaria in Northern Territory. It looks a lot like a Rainbow Lorikeet and the way to tell it apart is the orange feathers on the back of its neck, blue feathers on its back and these sort of blackish feathers on its belly. It also sounds a lot like the Rainbow Lorikeet. This recording is by Tobias Sheppard in Kakadu National Park and Jawoyn Country.
<Recording of Red-collared Lorikeet>
Kirsty: How are you going? Can you hear the differences between each lorikeet's call? We've got two to go. The Scaly-breasted Lorikeet can be found down the east coast of Australia. It can often be found hanging out near the Rainbow Lorikeet, but it's a lot smaller. It is the only lorikeet with an all-green head and it has yellow feathers that look a bit like fish scales on its breast, hence its name, Scaly-breasted Lorikeet. It also has this stunning pink and orange black colour under its wings, which you can see when it flies. It is really well known for its high pitched screech. So let's have a listen.
<Recording of Scaly-breasted Lorikeet>
Kirsty: That recording is by Henk Krajenbrink at Mount Molloy in Queensland on Koko Muluridji Country. It's time for the grand finale, my friends. The Varied Lorikeet. This lorikeet is hanging out with a Red-collared Lorikeet in the top end of Western Australia, Northern Territory and Queensland. It is small and more pastel coloured than the other lorikeets. It has yellow streaking on its body and it also has this white skin around its eye. Also known as the Red-crowned Lorikeet, this bird has red feathers that look like a cap on its head. These lorikeets love to travel where the food is and can sometimes be found in quite dry areas like Mount Isa in Queensland. This lorikeet has a high pitched screech, so let's tune our ear to its call.
<Recording of Varied Lorikeet>
Kirsty: That recording was by Phil Gregory at Lake Argyle in Western Australia on Miriwoong Gajerrong Country. So friends, you've just heard seven different species of lorikeets. Like most parrots, lorikeets build their nest deep inside of the hollow of large trees. Hollows high off the ground, provide a safe place for them to raise their babies away from predators like cats. So you can help lorikeets by using products like toilet paper that are not made from old growth forests. Listen to Episode 35 to hear Tom's advice about other things that you can do for the lorikeets that live around you. Recordings of lorikeets were shared on the Xeno-canto.org website, and I'd like to give my thanks to all the recordists. Many thanks to the writers of bird books and the team at BirdLife Australia for providing the information that featured in this episode. There's a good chance that there's a lorikeet living near you, so get out there and discover what you can hear. And stay tuned for the next episode where we are going to tune our ear to a very melodic group of songbirds.
