Rainbow Lorikeets and late night shopping

[Peter Woodall <>]

Hi all, 

There is a very large roost at the "Garden City" shopping
centre, in the southern
suburbs of Brisbane.  The roost is in eucalypts growing in the car
park, fairly removed
from buildings, so I think that factors other than temperature are likely
to be 
important in this case.

Peter

At 12:05 PM 18/11/2004 +0100, you wrote:

At 11:54 18.11.2004, you wrote:

They do this in other places too. I noted the same in the main street of Goondiwindi a few years ago and I reckon others have noticed the same thing. It is probably warm and safe there, being well lit, if they are disturbed they can safely fly around and settle somewhere else, rather than flounder around in the dark. Why wouldn't they? It is not as if they are scared of sitting on people's heads. Currumbin made a name for this decades ago.
 

        Starlings in Europe and the US do the same, and I think maybe there are two advantages for them, although one will be less important in your balmy climes. Humans are not a problem for roosting birds (we don't catch and eat them), cats usually can't get at them easily at most roosts, and there are fewer natural predators in busy places than outside the towns.

        Here, where we already have 30 cm snow on the ground and freezing weather,  also the more lenient microclimate inside towns may well  play a role, I should think, but that will probably be less important in Australia.

        Best greetings from 70*N, where the last sun of the year just has set (at noon!)

                                                                Wim Vader, Tromsø Museum
                                                                9037 Tromsø, Norway
                                                                

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