Coconut Lorikeet

• Unlike most parrots it cannot crack seeds: its tongue is a specialised brush for lapping nectar.
• anatomíaIts brush-tipped tongue is specialised for taking pollen and nectar from eucalypt flowers, unlike most parrots, which are seed-eaters.
• It forms communal night roosts that can hold as many as 50,000 birds.
• It eats nectar and pollen, along with fruit and insects.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - pneumatised bony skeleton (bird)

Habitat and environment

Tropical forest, mangrove and towns with flowering trees in Australia, Indonesia and the Pacific islands

Birth weight

Exact weight at hatching not found as a precise figure

Size at birth

Blind and featherless on hatching (altricial)

Sexual maturity

~2 years

Gestation / incubation

23-25 days

Litter / clutch size

1 to 3 eggs per clutch (most commonly 2)

Life expectancy in captivity

A documented record of up to 16-32 years in captivity (higher figures unconfirmed)

Sources consulted: AnAge (genomics.senescence.info) · Northern Parrots · SeaWorld/Busch Gardens · The Animal Facts · Birds in Backyards · JRank Articles · Rain Forest Reports · PMC (genome study)

Best time: All year round in northern and eastern Australia and in New Guinea, by day; it gathers noisily in flowering eucalypts and other blossoming trees.

The pins mark the parks where its presence is documented.