Lorikeets Of Australia - Lories, loris. Rainbows - Pet
Birds, Exotic Birds
RAINBOW LORIKEETS
Trichoglossus haematodus moluccanus
OTHER NAMES
Swainson's Loris, Blue Mountain Lorikeets, Bluey, Green
Collar Lorikeets
SIZE
Length about 30 cm, weight about 125 grams
SEXING
Visual sexing is not reliable and surgical or DNA sexing is
necessary
NATURAL OCCURENCE
The Rainbow Lorikeet is widely distributed along the
coastal strip from Cape York south to Victoria and into South Australia. It is
often abundant from Sydney northwards, but is becoming rarer south of Sydney.
An increasing population around Perth, in Western Australia, is thought to be
derived from escaped aviary birds. The prefered habitat is coastal forests as
well as urban gardens. Noisy flocks of up to several hundred may congregate in
flowering trees to feed and roost, at times in the company of Scaly Breasted
Lorikeets. Breeding in the wild is from August to January.
The Rainbow Lorikeet is one of maybe 18 to 20 subspecies of T.
haematodus, a complex which is widely distributed through the southwest
Pacific islands, Papua-New Guinea and Indonesia.
AVICULTURE
The Rainbow is easily the most popular lorikeet kept in
Australian aviculture, and breeds freely. Housing is best as a single pair to
a flight, since they can be quarrelsome in the breeding season. Suspended
aviaries around 3.5 metres long are the prefered accomodation. A 30 cm by 30
cm by 45 cm high nestbox can be used, and the usual precautions for keeping
the Lorikeet nestbox clean are required. Two eggs are laid, and incubation by
the hen takes 24 days. The babies fledge at around 56 to 60 days, and the
young become independent after a further 14 days. Double or even triple
brooding is likely, especially if babies are removed for hand rearing. Sexual
maturity is at 18 to 24 months. The diet is typical of Lorikeets, as covered
in the 
Lorikeet Page 
