A Rainbow Lorrikeet was sitting on the ground and didn't move when i was quite close, it was beside the bread crumbs that someone (annoyingly) puts out onto the nature strip and wasn't interested in them. I am wondering if it was sick or hurt as this doesn't seem like normal behaviour.
It could be one or more of a number of reasons, oconnore.
I've noticed some animal species (not just birds) don't seem to have developed an awareness of danger & so can be approached quite closely without their moving. Whether this applies to species or individual animals I'm not sure. Others might have thoughts on this.
Bread doesn't have the same benefits for birds as the natural food they derive from the native plants they would normally feed on. In fact, bread can make some animals quite sick so it could be, as you say, the annoying artificial feeding by others that has caused the bird's torpor.
As a partial aside, I recall being at Gariwerd in Victoria where tourists were feeding bread to Eastern Grey Kangaroos - in spite of signs urging them not to which might indicate Australia has an ever bigger literacy problem than currently realised. But that's another story. I was told by the ranger present that a number of the Kangaroos had subsequently died from constipation as a result of eating bread. This is further evidence that we need to be protecting & providing natural habitats for our native animals so that they can be well fed.
Perhaps the Rainbow Lorikeet was stunned by a passing car.
Yes, thanks Woko. The next door neighbour of the woman that puts out the bread can often be seen out there with a dust pan and brush trying to sweep it all up!
elizabeth
An interesting dynamic in your neighborhood, oconnore.