For as many birds you can see in the pic there are just as many out of it.Some years ago I decided to hang a 1 litre nectar feeder in the tree in my garden. First to arrive were the honeyeaters and then one day in flew a pair of Rainbow Lorikeets. As the weeks turned into years their numbers increased and so of course did the nectar. Finally, it was a half a gallon in the morning and the same at dusk. I counted over 200 Rainbows and their smaller cousins the Scaley Breasted Lorikeet. In the morning they would fly in from the South West from their roosts in the rainforest on the mountains and would return from the North West where they had spent their days in flowering Ti trees on the coast. On weekends people would turn up to photograph them especially Japanese tourists
, but their biggest audience was always the local school kids as they passed on their way to school. I even had an artist and his wife photograph them. He decorated pottery with wild life motifs, but sorry to tell you I never received a complimentary dinner set
. The tree you see in the background is a Colvillea and in Summer when in flower its a real traffic stopper . The artist asked if I could bring the birds down closer. However , I never encouraged them to be that tame. It would be easy to do as they used to settle on my head when I was in the yard. Someone sent me a nasty email, anonamous of course.It was quite abusive for taking them away from their natural food. I replied to him..(.having found where he lived from the header on his email)
and told him I had as little time for anonamous emails as I did from letters or phone calls......they were gutless. I explained that far from taking them away from their natural food I had found that when local blossoms were available my nectar feed numbers would fade away. In fact the only birds that were regular were old and could have never have made it to the feeding grounds with the flock. I even had them pass away when feeding. Obviously parent birds would bring in their young to show them where a free feed was at. My nectar was made from sugar and water with a vitamin additive. It is illegal to provide honey as that can contain a virus harmful to the birds unless boiled. Of course there are many places throughout the State where you can feed the Rainbows such as Currumbin Bird Sanctuary. Although I have read recently that their numbers are dropping and they have appealed for schools and parks to erect nest boxes as developers have taken away the large trees containing nest hollows. This is an appeal I have long given voice to