'Rainbow Lorikeet' Photo

Photographer’s Note

About 70-80 of these noisy guys visit the gravillia tree just 40 feet from my back door daily, with only the Sony F707 and Olympus B300 1.7x teleconverter (323mm) it is not easy to sneak up on them, now if I had one of them DSLRs with about 600mm reach I could sit on my bedroom verandah with a beer and shoot them till the cows come home, oh well I suppose I can dream :-).

RAINBOW LORIKEET

This most striking coloured and noisy bird is one of 328 species of parrots found and 1 of 21 subspecies of Lorikeets found over the south west Pacific. Its scientific name is Trichoglossus haematodus

Description
This is truly where a picture is better than a thousand words There intense colours have patches of emerald green, orange midnight blue, dull blue, ruby red,lemon yellow, purple, violet greenish grey. Surprisingly enough this colourful bird can be hard sometimes to pick out in its natural habitat They are a small bird generally 11 to 12 inches long, weighing 120 to 140 grams on average females are generally a bit smaller and adolescents have duller markings They are said to live over 20 years in the wild Their vocalisation is varied from "screeching" in flight to "chatting" during feeding

Habitat and Distribution
Rainbow lorikeets distribution is mainly over the north-east in Australia
Their habitat ranges from forests of all sorts (heathlands, open forests, rainforest, sclerophyll forest) coastal or inland, to any area including urban areas that have suitable trees,

Behaviour
These birds are normally found in flocks, large flocks at night roosting in trees (thousands) but during the daytime they move and feed in much smaller flocks ranging up to 20 odd birds Late evening you may see larger flocks as they head towards their roosting site They are arboreal, which means they like trees, and can be very noisy, active, gregarious (sociable) and are often seen in the company of other birds They will spend long times feeding in trees but in hot conditions will have an afternoon break from feeding

smash2707, jhm, weswang, MLINES, spence, ChrisJ, nwoehnl, aloyho, Dakota55, bullybeef53, sarju, chinchini, ahmetgedikli, rabani, Pitoncle, ribeiroantonio has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

nels (2461) 2006-02-23 11:08

hi great colours its a good job photos dont come in audio the noise from these birds is deafening (i got woken by them last year on my stay at "karry valley" wa

adrian

smash2707 (2516) 2006-02-23 11:47

Absolutely stunning colors! The bird looks great in the midst of all the green leaves. Regards, Yvonne

jhm (85052) 2006-02-23 12:18

Hi Ian,
A very long time ago, but you show again a very beautiful picture with these parrot, splendid camouflage have this bird, almost a flower between the green environment, you did good job!
Best regards,
John.

weswang (18223) 2006-02-23 13:04

Hi Ian, It is nice to see your new post. A nice colorful shot to this beautiful creature together with the color well matched environment. Good catch and nice tight crop.

Graal (60312) 2006-02-23 13:37

Welcoooome Ian,
we expect a long time for You. Fantastic shot, picture good to TN. I like the colours and sharpness. Good note also. Well done.
Rgs, Aleksander

jemaflor (40669) 2006-02-23 14:40

Hi Ian,
An interesting colored shot, good contrast and composition ... as a painting, well done.

gaby (19801) 2006-02-23 14:45

Ian bonsoir - superb compo, colors and perspective -
This is great, Ian
Thanks
Gaby

Cricri (45241) 2006-02-23 15:48

Hello Ian welcome,
Magnifique image, jolie prise de cet animal dans ce beau feuillage, détails et superbe couleurs.
Amitiés
cricri

MLINES (11225) 2006-02-24 4:06

Wonderful composition of this colourful bird. The flowers balance this well. Great clarity and focus. A pleasure to see.

spence (1554) 2006-02-24 5:02

Hello Ian. Superb colours in this shot - appropriate given the name of the bird:) Nice that you managed to include a couple of the grevillea flowers as well - they add to the interest of the composition. To be honest, I'm not too keen on the black frame here. Just a bit too heavy and contrasty for my taste. But a nice shot of this beautiful fellow - we have huge flocks of parrots who visit a gum tree in our back yard, so I know what you mean about the noise!

ChrisJ (71614) 2006-02-24 5:30

Hi Ian

Good shot of the lorikeet in the bottlebrush tree. Excellent color lighting & sharpness. Well done!

nwoehnl (120) 2006-02-24 13:59

Hi Ian. Well, even without a DSLR and a lo-o-ong lens attached to it, this one came out really nice. An alert look and pose captured in the bird, with good detail in the vividly colorful plumage. Nice to have the tree blossoms included in the lower part of the frame for additional balance. Excellent notes, too. Well done.

aloyho (6111) 2006-02-25 7:09

Hi Ian,
Nice to see this new shot of yours. The colours are very striking yet excitingly harmonious. The different shades of green are very appealing and I like the repetition of the red in the flowers and the bird. Well done!! Have a nice weekend.

Stepan (27181) 2006-02-26 5:58

This is such an exotic view for Europe ! I find it magic and I imagine I had such colors everyday, around me, in the trees.
Thanks for that idea and these colors...
Stéphane

sixTL (8586) 2006-02-27 6:14

Hello Ian, very excellent composition. Colors are great. Very well done.

Regards ARtur

Dakota55 (392) 2006-03-06 8:50

You have out done many DSLR users! This is a realy nicely framed and clear shot.
Cheers Rob

plimrn (20101) 2006-03-12 14:40

Hi Ian,
I was thinking about posting a friendly lorikeet that arrived every morni ng at the Airlie Beach Hotel for his cookies, but your photo is so far superior that I won't post mine; rather, I'll make yours a new favorite for me.
Regards, Pat

Kenny10pin (19301) 2006-03-14 20:50

very nice picture here, I like the natural shot of it, very colourful indeed, well done

bullybeef53 (3255) 2006-03-15 17:57

the composition is excellent and the placement of the bird is ideal . However the colors are a little dull, maybe a little sharpening and adjustment of the levels would be in order . Jim

sarju (5308) 2006-03-15 23:05

Hi Ian
thanks for a wonderufully informative note.
It are the notes like these that makes browsing through TE a worthwhile experience.
thanks for sharing ... regards ... sarju

larevedere (1257) 2006-04-29 15:47

Hi Ian,
very interesting composition and photo at all, but maybe batter sharpness would be useful... :)
Best regards,
Olaf

chinchini (28311) 2006-05-02 13:00

Bonjour Ian,
Toutes mes félicitations pour cette superbe composition. Même si tu as eu des difficultés que je comprends, pour capturer cet ara, le cadrage est parfait. Aux belles couleurs du plumage de l'oiseau, tu as su ajouter ces fleurs rouges de ce qui me semble être un "rince-bouteille".
Compliments !
Pierre

ahmetgedikli (22649) 2006-05-04 11:53

Hi Ian,
An interesting colorful composition, good contrast and sharpness...
Well done!
Ahmet

binita (464) 2006-08-29 5:23

great colours. the bright parrot seems exceedingly well amidst green leaves.

rabani (9463) 2006-09-03 22:57

Dear Ian,
Wish I have a backyard with these to sneak up to. Don't mind letting go off the beer. It's psychedelically colorful enough as it is seeing that many birds massing on a single tree. I can't even find one in our rainforest let alone in any backyards. I can wait till the cows come home any time of the year and not a single lorikeet comes into view.
You definitely need to consider that 600mm Ian, and a heavy tripod to go with it. Seeing your work here and how the Sony has been serving for over 10 years, you are stretching it quiet a bit. There's a very slight motion blur that gives this work, a hazy feel to it. Composition wise, getting the lorikeet amidst its leafy setting is thoughtful and not incidental.

Regards
Bani

aimeric (265) 2007-02-11 16:36

great lorikeet and well-matched grevillea ...
thanks for sharing ... :o)

Pitoncle (3743) 2007-02-14 16:01

Bonjour Ian,
Je découvre ton impressionnante galerie à l'occasion de ta visite sur la mienne et je suis subjugué par tes publications dans lesquelles il m'est bien difficile de choisir.
A bientôt sur TE pour de nouvelles aventures.
Gérard

daddo (11961) 2007-02-15 6:19

hi Ian. These noisy splashes of colour are to be seen in the Dandennongs now, the domain of the crimson rosella and the cackatoo. They are splendid and your photo, with the bright green foliage surrounding this bird, shows the beauty of Australia's fauna and flora. Regards. Klaudio.

banyanman (7743) 2007-05-25 6:52

Good composition, Ian, and the vivid colours of the bird and the flowers against the almost all-green background makes this a very striking image. I remember I used to have many of these visiting my garden too when I lived in Townsville (and many more when I moved to the Sunshine Coast). I think there may be a tiny bit of motion blur, but it's not very noticeable at this size of posting.

Cheers . . . David

PS: I think the tree in your photograph is a Callistemon (bottlebrush) not a Grevillea, but maybe it was not this particular tree to which you were referring in your note.

ribeiroantonio (22214) 2007-12-09 1:51

Again, I also have one of those noisy birds immortalised on photo. Your picture is trully good. I love the way the bird was posing for your camera! A real photo model!!!
Read in in this photo how close I came to one of them.
By the way, another one in here.
Antonio