Scaly-breasted lorikeet

Scaly-breasted Lorikeets are mainly emerald-green, marked with yellow ‘scales’ on the breast and neck, the head is green and their eyes and beak are red.  In flight, Scaly-breasted Lorikeets have two-tone, red-orange underwings with grey trailing edges.

Scaly-breasted Lorikeets may be observed across coastal regions of eastern Australia from the tip of Cape York in Queensland, through to Wollongong in New South Wales in lowland eucalypt forests and woodlands but also occurs in heathlands and well-treed urban areas, including parks and gardens.

They feed on nectar and pollen that they harvest with their brush-tongues, mostly from eucalypts, but also from shrubs such as melaleucas, callistemons and banksias. They also forage from a range of garden plants, including nectar, pollen, fruits and seeds from umbrella trees.

Like other parrots they require hollows in order to breed. The eggs are laid on chewed, decayed wood in a hollow limb or where a branch has broken from the trunk of a eucalypt tree, at a height of between 3 m and 25 m above the ground. Male and female prepare the nest cavity, the female incubates the eggs and together they feed their young.