Flying Rainbows~

On By cindy knokeIn Birds, Conservation, MY PHOTOGRAPHS

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Talk about PDA!
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These guys perfect it.
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It’s enough to make your head spin!
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Rainbow Lorikeets are affectionate, comical and congenial birds, as sweet as they are pretty.
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Of course this grumpy guy might disagree, it’s no fun waiting for your feathers to grow, you can hardly fly and the big birds are having all the fun!
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There is always some minor bickering among birds, come to think of it, among people too, but that’s another story….
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What personalities these guys have. They hammed it up on my hand for my camera! They know how handsome they are……
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Some day I’d be over the rainbow to have a rainbow of my own.
Cheers to you from the free flying Lorikeets at Lorikeet Landing~

266 thoughts on “Flying Rainbows~”

  4. The are fabulous photos of the rainbow lorikeets; where were you?
    They are common in Australia and we are lucky enough to see them all the time. In the evening they fly over our house looking for the best tree to roost for the night – they are so noisy, you can’t hear yourself think!

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    1. I was in paradise in Australia. These birds you guys see everyday are exotic beauties to me. I just love the parrot species and these guys are so sweet and gentle! I had them eating out of my hand in Australia too! These guys are in a massive free flight, walk through aviary at The San Diego Safari Park near The Holler. It is run by the non-profit San Diego Zoo which is a leading conservation organization.

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  6. PDAs? I dunno, it looks more like they’re picking on each other than being affectionate. And did that bird’s head do a 180 or 360, like in The Exorcist? Whatever cartilage is in that bird’s neck, I need to get me some of that…

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  11. Reblogged this on Spirit In Action and commented:
    Thank you Cindy! You captured the radiance nature of these guys perfectly! I’ve read they are seriously messy to keep at home because they are fruit eaters-instead of seeds/grains supplemented with fruit and vegetables like most domestic parrots. But their interesting personalities, affectionate nature and beauty make up for the frequency of mop duty;-)

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    1. Yes, they eat mostly nectar and fruit which is unusual for such a large parrot. They have delightful personalities though as you mention. Thank you for your kindess my friend and happy Sunday!

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  17. Been photographing these guys in the wild. In the Aussie town of Port Douglas there are trees all down the centre of the main road downtown and literally hundreds of lorikeets gather there to roost for the evening. Their screeching is absolutely deafening.
    Lovely photos Cindy.
    Alison

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  23. Lorikeets!!! Nice to see that you have a nearby free-flight aviary exhibit near you as well Cindy! (For anyone in the NorCal region, you can get your Lorikeet fix in Redding too. There’s a free-flight aviary exhibit, at the Turtle Bay recreational park, where people can walk in and feed Lorikeets nectar.) Amazing how just catching a glimpse of these colorful beauties makes the day brighter!

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  26. Such characters of the bird world aren’t they Cindy, bossy and raucous they certainly rule the roost and down at our beach when they all (hundreds of them) come in to roost you cannot hear yourself speak above the cacophony of sound they make. I love them

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  29. Amazing. I had just posted some photos of bird shots I took this week. The colors were all brown, black or white (except the swans orange bill). I felt like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. leaving the black and white of Kansas and stepping into the vibrant colors of Oz. Thanks for the mystical journey. <3

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    1. Laughing, love that description! We just don’t get these gorgeous parrot species where we live. We have to travel towards the tropical zones to see them as they should be, in the wild~

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      1. It was amazing how the parrot just ate from your hand. The winter has been so harsh here, I put out some suet with seed. No birdie visitors came but yesterday — I noticed footprints and no suet bell at all — a bandit came and squirreled it away. Looking forward to more of your beautiful photos. <3

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  39. Such beautiful birds and they do such cute things. It reminds me when we were once down in Miami Beach, Florida on a vacation and we visited the Parrot Jungle. The birds were all free and would land on us and line up on our head and shoulders for pictures and with a lot of them they are very heavy and you wonder if they left anything behind when they flew off. 🙂 I kept brushing myself off. 🙂

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    1. It’s such fun isn’t it! These birds are so intelligent, social and interactive, it is wonderful to see people who haven’t experienced them, fall in love!

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  40. They perch on your hands?? Wow, that must have been some experience! Part of me wonders whether their talons hurt, while the other part is awed by their stunning colorful beauty!!

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    1. No hurt at all. They are extremely gentle with people. Nectar was dripping on my finger, and oh so gently they turned upside down and liked it off my finger. I love them!

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  48. WOW! These birds are amazing! They are more colorful than macaws! Are there many of these birds in the wild around where you live? I heard of a colony of South American macaws that have taken up residence in San Francisco (there was a documentary on that), but even here in Illinois, a friend of mine last year saw a flock of parrots perched in a tree outside her house!

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    1. It is remarkable that parrot species do this. They escape in envornments so different than their native one, and successfully breed. It is remarkable and probably due to their resourcefulness and intelligence. How they find each other to breed is anyone’s guess. Maybe multiple birds are released at the same time. We have Amazon Yellow Head parrots breeding in the palm trees in Pt. Loma, but no Parrots at The Holler. The raptors wouldn’t tolerate them.

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  49. It’s now only one VERY long flight and two short ones before I will be serenaded (read screech) each evening for the next month by these beautiful creatures as they settle for the night. You now have me almost excited about the prospect of the 15hour 40 minutes flight to Australia… ALMOST, lol!

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      1. So are these here. They are actually roosting in the trees in the small reserve opposite our apartment – the sound of them waking and preparing for sleep each day is just glorious! 🙂

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    1. Oh I empathize. We are leaving soon for Africa. This is 2-12 hour flights! It’s worth it, but oh the flights are no fun! I must go back to Austalia too. I know you will have the most wonderful time there~

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  56. Reblogged this on John's Space ….. and commented:
    For the three or four of my readers who don’t view photos on CindyKnoke.com I beg you check her recent post of colorful Rainbow Lorikeets. The poor woman gets practically no traffic on her website, takes terrible photos, and no one ‘likes’ her posts, so I’m rallying support to encourage her to keep at it regardless. 😉 This post appeals to my pre-Cro Magnon sense of art and nature, i.e. if it’s colorful I like it. Be sure to click on a bird photo twice to see it zoom into a painting-style ultra-closeup suitable for a screensaver. Don’t give up Cindy!

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    1. Awwwww, laughing, I so appreciate your support! I really do! And it is meeting bloggers like you that keeps me blogging. I have made such wonderful friends. And you sir, are the least Cor-Magnon blogger there I can think of. Thank you so much for your kindness and your humor and your wonderful blog~

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    1. Laughing. I suspect the latter might be right. Picasso’s early work was all classical paintings of landscapes and nature and such. Quite traditional, very beautiful and incredibly skillfully done. I would like to see him tackle the Lorikeets in his latter works too though. It would be quite errrrr…… arresting!

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  60. cjx07ster

    Also – loud in squadrons of 40 or more – coming in to land and line up like soldiers on my balcony. Pretty but loud. Then all taking turns to look for something to eat. ‘Get back up on the tree boys !’ I say loudly – concentrating on trying to write something or just chill in the sunshine.

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    1. It does look like someone painted them doesn’t it! Quite amazing looking birds really. I am reading the most incredible book by a Brit named Helen MacDonald called “H is for Hawk.” She raises and trains a Goshawk in her Cambridge home. It lives in her house and she hunts it all over the suburbs. It was of the most brilliantly written books I have read in quite awhile.

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  68. Stunning shots. You work wonders with that camera. I tried it’s junior version, but found the time it takes to “write” (process) the photo maddening. Have you found some way around it?

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    1. You can set my camera, and most sonys, to self selected settings that are much more rapid than relying on the the camera to select the settings for you. I don’t think you can do this with the point and shoots though. I would have to look at my old camera to verify this. I never use the rapid fire 1 foto per seconds function though some people do, I want more time to frame a foto than this and I don’t want to look at 600 fotos! You can check your setting dial and see if you can set the camera off of auto which will enable you to take faster fotos. Hope this helps…

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      1. You have inspired me to give it another try. Sure would be nice to have something more compact to walk around with! Thank you. 🙂

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  77. The Land Down Under is over the rainbow! Your photos are fantastic Cindy, and your adventure must be delightful. Thanks so much for taking the time to share it with us. G’Day! 🙂

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  81. Wow. The bird is incredible. I was planning to write a short article for the next newsletter about the rainbow painted mountains in China. I will add the rainbow lorikeet to it and make it a broader article!

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  98. I loved all the photos of the affectionate rainbow parakeets, Cindy! I liked the young one with his tufts of orange feathers on his chest. He is so cute! I always like how you pair your words to the photos so they make a fun story, too.

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    1. Hallo Ernst . Sie sind fur Menschen gewohrt, aber nicht wirklich zahm. Sie sind nicht wie Ziervogel , weil sie leben in einem riesigen begehbaren Voliere und werden fur die Herde nicht Personen gebunden .

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  102. Cute, if sleepy-looking, little fella – lovely photos as ever Cindy.
    I’m delighted to be back online after a month of no broadband – *hooray*

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  112. Can you imagine certain species of dinosaurs walking prehistoric earth looking this vibrant? I still like that Robert Bakker hypothesis. I’d really like to see that.

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  114. Cindy, all your photographs are fantastic… On every post. You were kind enough to tell me you use the Sony HX 400. I am debating between that and a Fuji bridge camera. Does the Sony make good prints as large as, say, 11×14? Do you exhibit or sell your photos? With admiration for your talent, Ellen

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    1. Yes, the sony makes fabulous large prints. I just made 42 different ones for a presentation. They had to be custom cropped, so you can’t send them to a machine to be done, but the results are really worth it and no I don’t sell or exhibit. Thank you so much for the thoughtful words, the admiration is reciprocated exponentially! You are most gifted! Cheers to you & thank you & I am interested to hear what you decide~

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      1. Well, Cindy, first of all, thanks so much for the feedback on the Sony. Can’t afford custom cropping and also am pretty daunted by the menus on the Sony I saw online. You obviously know a LOT more than I do to even use the camera. Will check more reviews but probably will go with the Fuji HS50. It is cheaper, too. Thanks so much for what you said about my photographs. I barely know what I am doing. But you could exhibit if you wanted to, for sure, or sell your photos to magazines or on the market. I will let you know what I did and the results. Your work is breathtaking– those close-ups especially. Namaste, Ellen

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      2. Well I am excited for you about the Fuji! A new camera is a reason for celebration and it sounds like you have done a thorough job of researching cameras online which is always so smart to do! I love your photos and am looking forward to seeing, and hearing about your results with your new camera. With reciprocal respect and admiration, namaste~ <3

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