Great Birding Moments #17 Musk Lorikeets

Musk Lorikeet

Musk Lorikeet

A few days ago I wrote about a recent visit to a private native garden at Cockatoo Valley, north of Adelaide in South Australia. While visiting that garden I photographed several Musk Lorikeets feeding in a eucalypt tree.

Musk Lorikeet

Musk Lorikeet

Lorikeets are not easy to photograph. They tend to feed in the thick foliage and rarely show themselves clearly. When they do show themselves, it is usually as a streak of green or red as they dart overhead, heading like arrows to the next tree for another feed.

The individual shown in the above photos was unusual; it stayed out in the open, within camera zoom range, and in focus for long enough for me to take about a dozen shots.

Sometimes you get lucky.

Related articles:

  • Musk Lorikeets – another encounter with this species, this time in my daughter’s garden in Clare, South Australia.
 

6 Responses to “Great Birding Moments #17 Musk Lorikeets”

  1. Snail says:

    Those are terrific photos of such active birds!

    They’re abundant from time to time in parks around this side of Melbourne (west) but usually you have to rely on their whistling shrieks to work out where they are.

  2. Trevor says:

    Thanks for the compliment, Snail. The Musk Lorikeet are not common here in Murray Bridge; we tend to have the Rainbows and Purple Crowns instead. The Musks are common in my daughter’s garden in Clare (mid-north SA). They are incredibly hard to see let alone photograph so I feel really pleased this one posed so beautifully for me.

  3. […] Great birding moments #17: Musk Lorikeets […]

  4. […] Great birding moments #17: Musk Lorikeets […]

  5. John Long says:

    I believe a group of Musk Lorikeets is called a “clan” of lorikeets. Let me know if there is a better or more appropriate word.
    John Long
    +61 408 443 335

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