Carnivorous Lorikeets?

People are used to seeing carnivorous birds, but it's a bit startling to actually see Australian rainbow lorikeets add meat to their normally vegetarian diets. This is less surprising from a biblical perspective, beginning in Genesis. I can just imagine a movie about Australian cowboys trapped in a town fighting flocks of evil rainbow lorikeets that want to eat them. "G'day, pilgrim — oi! That 'urts!" If Syfy makes the movie, I want a cut of the profits for the idea.

Pixabay / Rainbow Lorikeet / sandid

Science fiction aside, this bad boy parrot relative developed a taste for meat, even to the point of fighting other birds for it. Biblically, everything was originally vegetarian until the Fall of man.

“Meat-eating rainbow lorikeets puzzle bird experts” proclaimed the recent news headline. Rainbow lorikeets are a beautiful Australian parrot species (Trichoglossus haematodus), which have been known as solely feeding on fruit, seeds, nectar, and pollen. Their numbers in the wild have surged in recent years, much to the consternation of fruit growers (as rainbow lorikeets “can decimate an orchard in three days”), but much to the delight of backyard bird watchers in south-east Queensland, who have taken to leaving food out for them and other bird species, so as to be able to admire them feeding up close.

To read the rest of the story, click on "Easy meat for the lorikeet".
  
People are used to seeing carnivorous birds, but it's a bit startling to actually see Australian rainbow lorikeets add meat to their normally vegetarian diets. This is less surprising from a biblical perspective, beginning in Genesis.