Little Lorikeet Glossopsitta pusilla

Length 16–18 cm; wingspan 24–29 cm; weight 40 g.

A gregarious species, the Little Lorikeet is usually seen in small flocks, and often occurs with Rainbow, Musk and Purple-crowned Lorikeets.  Though this arboreal species is active, noisy and conspicuous, its small size and green plumage makes it difficult to detect while foraging in the upper canopy of eucalypts.  When feeding, Little Lorikeets are agile and acrobatic, clambering through the foliage, and often hanging upside down to reach blossoms.  They are tame when foraging, often allowing a close approach by observers.  Their flight is swift and direct, with rapid shallow wing-beats; birds flushed from a tree usually weave through the treetops but flocks travelling long distances usually fly high on a direct course.  In flight, they appear small and compact, with short angular wings and a short pointed tail.

HABITAT
Little Lorikeets mainly inhabit dry, open sclerophyll forests and woodlands, usually dominated by tall eucalypts, especially box–ironbark species including White Box and Yellow Box, where they forage in the canopy of flowering trees.  They also sometimes occur in mallee associations, and forests vegetated with trees similar to eucalypts, such as bloodwoods and Angophora.  They may also feed in flowering paperbarks, mistletoes or grass-trees when the eucalypts are not in flower, but they apparently ignore flowering banksias.  Little Lorikeets sometimes occur in logged forests and remnant patches of open forest, and also in open parkland and gardens in urban areas.

DISTRIBUTION
Endemic to eastern mainland Austral

STATUS

• Endangered in South Australia

THREATS


MOVEMENTS
Generally thought to be nomadic, though in some areas it is considered resident.

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