Monday 23 July 2012

Garden Visitors - the Rainbow Lorikeets


A flock of Rainbow Lorikeets darting and calling each other in the sky. You can't get more Australian than this. I was noticing how nature manages to get some kind of balance, for instance, such a colorful and flamboyant bird is often appreciated for its look but certainly not for its calls, rather harsh and unpleasant for us, even though they sometimes produce some kind of mellow sounding whistles. If we think of all the avian species famous for their songs, they seem to never show a bright colorful plumage, they are in fact rather dull or humble in terms of colours. Feel free to bring some examples if you know otherwise!



As all other parrots they seem to tie very close bonds within the members of a couple.



And yet their colours are not just pretty, they end up being very useful to communicate within the flock and to deceive predators. Predators looking from the sky would find it hard to focus on a single bird looking just as the tree canopy on which it feeds, while other members of the flock will never loose eye contact with one another, thus helping each other as all flock birds do.

Shop update: the opening of my online shop has been delayed for a little bit longer, I was probably too optimistic, I just want to make sure everything is just right, this week I'm going to see some print samples and hopefully by the end of this week or the next at the longest I'll be ready for the opening. Exciting times!

All the best
M

12 comments:

  1. Beautiful paintings and a good insight to the noisy birds!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for this beauty from Australia Matteo. What a brilliant work with this lovely and beautiful birds.
    Lovely greet
    Marja
    (marjascreativity)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank you Carol and Marja, Marja, it is always so nice to read your comments, thank you very much.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Matteo ... love this blog post ... and such an amazing portrayal of the lorikeets.
    We don't usually get them here in Western Australia but we are seeing increasing numbers here and the chaos and noise when they are gathered - particularly in the pine trees at Cottesloe Beach - is deafening.
    Beautiful paintings!

    ReplyDelete
  5. These are just awesome. Beautiful work!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thank you very much Vicki and Revelle!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I painted two lorikeets earlier this year and loved painting with such vibrant colours. It must be wonderful to have these colourful birds in the garden - I'm about to paint some more parrots for a friend who has them in her garden so those gorgeous vibrant colours will be coming out again - these are wonderful studies, thanks for sharing - love this blog and following!

    ReplyDelete
  8. hope you don't mind I've just done a post on my blog with a reference to this post

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Sharon, I don't mind at all, thank you for sharing! Your Lorikeets are lovely.

      Delete
  9. Beautiful paintings and thanks for the natural history info as well.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hello Matteo:) Nature has thought of everything!
    So beautiful to see your studies and learn about these birds at the same time. Very beautiful done!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Thank you very much Gowri and Renate.

    ReplyDelete

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...