Yesterday I was trying to photograph the birds I had yet to identify. It did not go very well and only got a pair of them, one feeding the other on a nearby branch. All the photos were either blurry (due to the gusty winds or the birds not keeping still) or no birds at all in the shot. The birds were in the neighbours black barked gum tree/s across the road which is currently in flower. After about 15 minutes of observing them (well, their noise), a Rainbow Lorikeet or two flew into the tree/s as well and the Musk Lorikeets went beserk. They ended up on my side of the closest gum tree to me, or so it looked. The moment that happened I started video recording them. Then a kookaburra showed up and sat on an outer branch of the tree, then the storm struck and all the birds fled the area. It took me ages to finally identify the birds as Musk Lorikeets but am 100% certain that that is what they are now.
I was going to put this in the videos section but no-one seems to go there, or not many. This was filmed yesterday in the late afternoon before dusk, and moments before a storm struck. I live in Tenterfield, NSW. These birds arrive about this time of the year, and once here, they roost every night in town until the onset of late Autumn. The flock gradually gets bigger over time as more arrive to join the birds already here, eventually there are about anywhere between 200-500 Musk Lorikeets here every single dusk/dawn. Every morning they fly west to feed. And I believe they breed in Tenterfield too going on past observations. During the day you just don't see or hear them.
So, in town, this is what Musk Lorikeets do when they are feeding and possibly even trying to form a mating pair by chasing others away. This video was about 10 years in the making and the very first time they fed from the nectar of the gum trees in my neighbour's property. Enjoy!
The below picture is not mine, but is what I finally used to identify these birds. The birds in my video don't appear to have the red on their beak but it is so hard to tell that small a detail from my camera and from about 20-30 metres away with a stupid camera that won't zoom in that far.
Interesting observations, Shirley, especially about the Musk Lorikeets breeding. This suggests there are old trees in the area which have nesting hollows. Have you noticed any hollows & whether they're being used by other bird species or bats & possums?
Not entirely sure actually, Woko. I believe I know where they are breeding and it is a stand of mature but still young gum trees. I've read that Musk Lorikeets will make a nest out of a rotting branch and just hollow it out if no actual hollows are available. One of the two black barked gum trees in the video has an actual hollow in it as a pair of Eastern Rosellas breed in it almost every year. All I am certain about, when I actually take notice in late spring is the numbers and sizes of these birds (Musk Lorikeets) are small to begin with. They do not have offspring at that point but that again is variable as some years they do. There just appears to be 2-3 members of a family group merging up here to create a much bigger flock (or feeding colony). After summer, or very close to the end of it, some of the adult birds (in pairs) are observed here during the day and are seen flying west and then heading east again. This occurs during the day not at dawn or dusk.
One year I saw a pair of Rainbow Lorikeets try to steal a nesting site of a Musk Lorikeet. The Rainbows lost and had to settle for a hollow in a Magpie nesting tree across the road. Musk Lorikeets outnumber, when the colony is all here, all resident birds in town. So their nesting sites are viciously defended. No locals are allowed. There's no bats or possums here anymore, except for the odd pair of fruit bat every spring/summer that go for the poplar tree fruit and snap their branches. When mid summer is here so too are the massive flock of Sulphur crested cockatoos and Little Corellas. The cockatoos and corellas don't breed here but only come for the food. They eat everything from every single tree in town, even poplar trees. So, the noise is very loud of all 3 species all squarking at the same time at dusk or nearing dusk.
But observing their (Musk Lorikeets) flock as a whole, it does appear they do not breed in town every year. If they do breed, out of 300 birds maybe only 10-30 pairs might breed here - as far as I can tell. Late season breeding couples I guess, or not enough hollows/nesting sites to go around, so they keep moving and the ones that didn't breed at the beginning of the season does so in the new location where all the new food is until late Autumn sets in.
For a few years I have observed offspring with the adults coming into town in late Spring early Summer. During these years no apparent breeding has been observed in town. This tells me their breeding season is variable from winter to late summer depending upon how good the seasons are for food and rainfall and whether there is enough food in one location for all the breeding pairs to breed that year. At the end of the flowering season they just leave usually enmasse but in small family groups. The entire flock disappears overnight and this species does travel at night when they are leaving town for the year. They head west. Always! And they come from the west. Always!
Then again, the numbers of this species to arrive in town varies from year to year too. If only small numbers are observed initially that means only about 1/3 of the colony will be seen that year by the end of summer. As interesting as these observations are, I just wish they'd keep still long enough for me to get a decent close up photo of them. They're just way too fast to photograph and really aggressive but easily spooked by humans and loud vehicles especially if a lot of them are juveniles. The spooked juveniles will make the entire roosting flock spook and fly to another tree. They can be found roosting in poplar trees up here, in the top 1/3 of the trees. And poplar trees are massive in size up here of about 50-60 metres in height but scattered across town in small numbers here and there. They roost very close to the main street too, where there is a lot of human activity. Just one block away from the main street actually. Their roosting locations baffles me actually.
I'm at Tenterfield, NSW. (Formerly known as "Hyperbirds".)
If there are Eucalyptus saplings with flowers at, say, head height it's often easy to photograph Musk Lorikeets because they're so engrossed in feeding on all that lovely nectar.
It is not easy to photograph these birds when they are feeding, Woko, for 2 reasons.
1. They feed from the top 1/3 of a gum tree and
2. They just do not keep still long enough even when eating nectar to take a decent photo of them. Musk Lorikeets are constantly on the move, constantly, except when they are sleeping.
There is no such thing as Eucalypt saplings (with or without flowers at head height) here in Tenterfield. Eucalypt revegetation is extremely rare in town even along the creek sections. They are rarer than a 100 year flood in Tenterfield. Besides, these birds only seem to go for the tallest of trees to do anything in, as you can tell by what I've said previously about where they sleep (in massively tall poplar trees). Very rarely do they sleep in gum trees up here.
Getting a photo of these birds is a fluke in itself, unless you have a really good camera with a really big zoom on it, which I don't and can take clear or good photos at dusk or heavily overcast days. (Or an opportunity arises that makes these birds feed from the outside of the tree.) These birds do seem to compete for food with Rainbow Lorikeets. There were at least 2 Rainbow Lorikeets in the same tree as the Musk Lorikeets and probably the reason why the Musk Lorikeets went beserk in the first place and why I got the video in the first place of them. Musk Lorikeets will chase off Rainbow Lorikeets and do not tolerate them at all. They are the ultimate aggressive Lorikeet to keep Rainbows in check. It seems even the other bird species avoid these birds. The Eastern Rosellas who nest in the same tree the Musks feed from fly to a neighbouring tree to avoid them. If the Musks discover the nesting hollow of the Eastern Rosellas, the Eastern Rosellas will lose their home for good.
Of all the years I have been observing this species I have never heard or seen them in the gum trees across the road. Those 2 particular gum trees don't flower every year either and their flowers are very noticeable even from 50 metres away, so I know when those gums are in flower. The black barked gum trees are indigenious to the area and am guessing is what the Musk Lorikeets are feeding from initially in the early stages of summer. That's why they are here in town but what else they feed from I don't know as they disappear all day long and only come back at twilight every night. Seeing these birds feeding from anything in town is a fluke.
We've just had 2 days straight of heavy rain that occurred overnight. That rain was enough to get down deep and for gum trees to produce lots of flowers with rich nectar. And there is rainwater laying around as well. All this rain may have put out the bushfires too that were in the immediate area.
I now have another 2 mysteries to solve - a twilight/noctural bird that makes a cackle sounding call as it arrives in the immediate area just before it starts hunting then goes silent, and another bird that sounds like it's chewing on a squeeky (dog) chew toy. The latter being a baby bird of some type. The cackle bird, as I call it, may be the Nankeen Night Heron or a fruit bat but can't be 100% certain though. The cackle sound it makes stops after a while and then there's just flapping of wings and rustling but it is also going for the 2 gum trees which the Musk Lorikeets are feeding from across the road. But I've also heard the same bird in my garden where there are no plants in flower at the moment, not even the grevilleas. So whatever it is it is a meat eater of some sort and probably eats nectar from time to time, or bugs attracted to the nectar. Strangely, I haven't seen any spiders at all yet, except for the few daddy long legs in my shower. No spiders? What's going on here? The only theory I have is the Nankeen Night Heron is breeding and has a mate and/or young ones to feed. They eat frogs too, as frogs are the main "wildlife" along with crickets and another large insect species that has made my garden home. But the frog numbers are dropping rapidly here in just days. The thing is it doesn't sound like a Nankeen Night Heron. It sounds more like an owl of some sort and an owl, in the past, has been observed hunting in the garden and catching insects from the exterior walls and windows of the flats. So, its probably an owl - AGAIN. Those Musk Lorikeets had better watch themselves otherwise they'll be a snack for the owls.
I'm at Tenterfield, NSW. (Formerly known as "Hyperbirds".)