Monday 10 October 2011

Rainbow Lorikeets

It is no wonder that when the 1500s Portuguese explorers, mapping the coasts of Australia, named it Psittacorum regio, the Latin for 'Land of parrots'. When I first come to Australia I was astonished to see how easily parrots can be seen in great numbers in any environment, city included. In this period of the year, southern hemisphere spring, trees are blooming very generously and lorikeets are very busy taking the best advantage out of this great food opportunity. The Rainbow Lorikeet is probably the most common Lorikeet in Australia, an icon from Darwin to Adelaide. They are also frequent visitors of bird feeders, but they are bold and aggressive to other species chasing every other bird away, this is in fact one of the reasons for the decline of some other bird species where Rainbow Lorikeets are numerous.  Their screeching calls are filling the air, sometimes harsh, sometimes full of joy, to see them darting in the sky is always a pleasure.
For the Italian readers, or anybody who reads Italian, I started writing for a website called 'I love Australia', written and managed by Italians in Australia, a website whose goal is to give information about anything related to this country, from immigration to nature, travel and holiday and more: http://www.iloveaustralia.it/
Until next time!       Matteo

10 comments:

  1. Hi Matteo - beautiful artwork, gorgeous colours. They are very noisy when they gather - deafening sometimes when in large groups!

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  2. Hi Vicki! Yes, deafening indeed.. and beautiful

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  3. A brilliant painting. Thanks Matteo.

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  4. Beautiful painting! How exciting - and inspiring it must be to look out and see these incredible birds as numerous as sparrows here in Texas!

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  5. Always beautiful, you capture them so well. Love your leaves too, the colours are lovely when they are wet and they have spots and holes to add interest , yours are so lovely. Enjoyed my visit .
    Milly

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  6. Thank you Milly, I always enjoy a visit to your blog too!

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  7. Just saw a bunch of these at the local zoo. I couldn't believe the colors or the noise--I loved them. You get to see them wild--nice :) I figured you must have painted them--and you had. As usual, I was not disappointed!

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  8. Thank you, I hope you'll be able to see them flying free in the wild too..

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  9. Hi Matteo,

    I love your work, I am a portrait artist who works mainly in pencil...I am inspired by your beautiful paintings, have just started a watercolour of a blue tit. We have a blue tit nest just at the side of our front door, in a little bird box that my husband fixed there, the little baby birds tweet like mad every time you open the door. I live in a pretty market town, Market Bosworth,(weather is beautiful today) which is in the Middle of England. I have purchased one of your feather bookmarks, it is lovely, and sits at the side of my pc.
    Thanks for listening to me waffle on...you live in a very different country to me, but both full of wonderful wildlife...we are so lucky!
    Best wishes, Pam

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