canberrabirds

Meat Eating Rainbow Lorikeets

To: Philip Veerman <>, 'kym bradley' <>
Subject: Meat Eating Rainbow Lorikeets
From: John Harris <>
Date: Mon, 23 Mar 2015 21:39:22 +0000
Yes it is strange but not baffling. The expert whose name I missed on ABC Radio this morning seemed quite amazed that a parrot should eat meat. 
Caged birds do for a start. I had a pet galah and I regularly gave him a chicken bone. I eventually moved him into a cage with some parrots who quickly learned to envy his bone and it caused a lot of squabbles. 
Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos near-destroyed a remnant yellow box tree on Percival Hill ripping the branches up and eating the wood grubs.
I think that the bird psychology going on here is that a lorikeet would not normally RECOGNISE that meat was food or that they might like to eat it. But in certain cicumstances they learn this – from other birds or in this case, just the fact that meat and seed may be put out together.
 




From: Philip Veerman <>
Date: Monday, 23 March 2015 11:31 pm
To: 'kym bradley' <>
Cc: "" <m("griffith.edu.au","d.jones");">>, chatline <m("canberrabirds.org.au","canberrabirds");">>
Subject: RE: [canberrabirds] Meat Eating Rainbow Lorikeets

What is ironic about the article is that it does not identify that the bird they have ousted from the feeder is a butcherbird. Sure it is odd if they are preferring to eat meat over normal food.They are taking processed food in a situation where they presumably also get fed seeds.  I suggest that "baffling" is a bit over stated, as captive held other parrots may eat meat and this is an almost equally artificial situation. The Kea is a predator of sheep and eggs & young of shearwaters.
 
Philip
 
-----Original Message-----
From: kym bradley
Sent: Monday, 23 March 2015 6:53 PM
To:
Subject: [canberrabirds] Meat Eating Rainbow Lorikeets

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