Above, and over the next few posts, are a few drawings I’ve been making of late and all are from samples in the collection of the Macleay Museum. Heinrich Kuhl collected this particular lorikeet I have drawn one year before his death in Java.
Trichoglossus chlorolepidotus Kuhl 1820
Scaly-breasted lorikeet or green lorikeet
Family: Psittacidae
Collection history: Moreton Bay, Queensland
The scaly-breasted lorikeet is easily identifiable with its solid green head plumage and bright red beak; its breast feathers are yellow tipped with green and appear scaly or barred in pattern. These birds inhabit Australia’s east coast and live principally off eucalypt and melaleuca species, but they are also known to raid agricultural crops and eat insects. They can spend over a month adapting a hollow in a tree by chewing off wood sections for their nests, with the wood-dust serving as the nest floor.
Museum: The Macleays, their collection and the search for order
Robyn Stacey and Ashley Hay
Cambridge University Press
2007
