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 the seed-eating tongues of most parrots.
• 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 & 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)

Lifespan 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.