Rainbow Lorikeet - Trichoglossus rubritorquatus

Rainbow Lorikeet

Trichoglossus rubritorquatus

Family: Psittacidae (Parrots, 40 species in Australia)
Size: 28 cm
Distribution: Within about 100 km of the coasts of QLD, NSW, VIC and Eastern SA
Status: Abundant to Common
Habitat: Rainforests, open forests, woodlands, heaths, gardens, urban areas.
References: Simpson and Day, Reader's Digest

The Rainbow Lorikeet is known for its bright colours and friendly outgoing, social behaviour. Some places have gatherings of hundreds or even thousands of them which can get extremely loud.

Rainbow Lorikeet - Trichoglossus rubritorquatus
Photo: North Sydney NSW

Rainbow Lorikeet - Trichoglossus rubritorquatus
Artwork: John Gould, 'The Birds of Australia', 1848. Original Scanned Image.

Some Birdwatching Resources

The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia, Graham Pizzey and Frank Knight. This is the other of the two best bird field guides for Australia. It is the one preferred by many serious birdwatchers. However I find the pictures a bit dull looking for my taste — the birds all kind of look the same to me, making it harder to remember them in my mind. The illustrations are meant to be the most anatomically correct, though. The text descriptions are better than in Simpson and Day. If you want the most serious bird field guide get this one otherwise get Simpson and Day.

Purchase 9th ed. from Australia (Booktopia)

Purchase 9th ed. from Australia (Angus & Robertson)

Click here to purchase 9th ed. from Australia (The Nile)

Click here to purchase from Australia (Fishpond)

Click here to preorder the 9th ed. from Amazon

Field Guide to Australian Birds, by Michael Morcombe. This one has colour drawings of the eggs and the nests which not many other field guides do (I can't think of any that do). It's an excellent field guide and one of the four main ones (the other three being above this one). The weakness of this field guide is that some of the pictures of the birds aren't as good (or accurate) as the other three most used field guides. It's also the heaviest though there is a pocket edition which is much smaller and lighter.

Purchase from Australia (Booktopia)

Purchase from Australia (Angus & Robertson)

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