Little Lorikeet
Psitteuteles pusillus
Small lorikeet with red face mask (red above and below the beak). Flies overhead at speed making short high pitched, metallic calls. Feeds primarily in canopies, and is nomadic, moving through a wide range of eucalypt forest depending on food availability.
Identification
Measuring 15 cm (5.9 in) in length, the male and female are similarly coloured, although the latter is a little duller. The crown, lores and throat are red, the nape and shoulder bronze-coloured and the remainder of the plumage green. The belly is paler and yellow-green. In adults, the bill is black and the iris golden in colour.: 119 Immature individuals have a paler orange face and a brown iris and bill.
Taxonomy
The little lorikeet was first described by ornithologist George Shaw in 1790 as Psittacus pusillus. Its specific epithet is the Latin pusilla "small". Other common names include tiny lorikeet, red-faced lorikeet,: 119 gizzie, slit,: 31 and formerly a local indigenous term gerryang.
- Scientific name
- Psitteuteles pusillus
- Authority
- (Shaw, 1790)
- Order
- Psittaciformes
- Family
- Psittaculidae
- Genus
- Psitteuteles
Range and habitat
The little lorikeet is found in eastern and southern Australia, from the vicinity of Cairns southwards through Queensland and New South Wales from the western slopes of the Great Dividing Range eastwards to the coast, through most of Victoria and southeastern South Australia. It also occurs in Tasmania although it is uncommon there.: 31–32 They are found in forest, especially in the vicinity of flowering or fruit-bearing vegetation.: 90
- Migration
- Nomadic movement
Behavior
The little lorikeet is gregarious and often flocks with rainbow, musk and purple-crowned lorikeets.
Conservation
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
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Very large, dark rainforest owl. Note the dark brown upperparts, heavily barred underparts, and dark eyes. Rare and local in lowland rainforest, including forest edge. The call is a single long, descending whistle: “hrroooooouw,” repeated after long pauses. Shelley’s Eagle-Owl is much larger than other rainforest eagle-owls. Overall coloration most similar to Akun Eagle-Owl, but Shelley’s has dark rather than yellow eyes. Similar in size to Verreaux’s Eagle-Owl, but darker and heavily barred below.
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Cercomacroides laeta
Small, perky antbird. Males are slate-gray with an often-concealed white patch on their backs and narrow white tail tips (lacking in the western subspecies). Females have an olive-gray back and are tawny-buff below. Found at the forest edge and in second growth, where it forages in pairs in the understory and is not normally associated with mixed-species flocks or army-ant swarms. The similar Dusky Antbird has a white tipped tail in the area of overlap with the western subspecies. The song is easy to recognize, a sharp, high, positively joyful “puh-wéedi-wéedi-wéedi-wéedi.”
Red-banded Fruiteater
Pipreola whitelyi
Plump, medium-sized bird of mossy highland forests. Note red-orange bill, legs, and eyes. Plumage of both male and female are unique in range. Males are mostly greenish-gray above with contrasting brown wings and crown; they are gray below with a prominent red breast band merging into a yellow collar. Females are greenish above with a yellow nape patch, and white below with prominent green streaking from chin to belly. Found only in tepui highlands (above 1000 m) where it inhabits middle and upper levels of wet forests and seems to prefer those with heavy growth of mosses and epiphytes. As its name implies, eats fruit and is most reliably seen at fruiting trees and shrubs. Otherwise, pairs are unobtrusive, moving sluggishly between perches and sitting still for long periods; may sometimes follow mixed-species flocks. Distinctive song is a long (3–4 sec.), very high, thin whistle, falling then rising in pitch, and given at long intervals; pair contact calls are short peeping notes.
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