I have been running around all day today and haven't had time to take a photo, so this is one I took while we were in Sydney.
We nipped into a café for a cuppa at The Rocks to escape the rain and in flew this rainbow lorikeet. I think he has done this kind of thing before and it must be his party piece. He does look a bit of a show off.
Love the photo Babs, but I'm none too keen on the heath/hygiene of having a member of the parrot family near food. A colleague of mine contracted psittacosis and died after a long illness.
@jackie8 Unfortunately, when you have got doors and windows open and also a lot of outdoor eating it is difficult to keep birds away from tables. The owners did shoo the birds off and wipe the tables while we were there though if that helps.
@golftragic A bit difficult to keep any birds away from cafes in Australia though don't you think. a lot of our cafes are outdoors or doors open. You will always get something landing nearby be it parrots, pigeons, sparrows, kookaburras etc.
I got psittacosis a few years ago and not because I was particularly close to parrots. It was a year which was very dry and we had huge dust storms. Unfortunately, diseased parrots poop it then it dries and ends up airborne. I just happened to breathe in at the wrong time along with a few hundred other people in our area and psittacosis was a big problem that year. Not a very pleasant atypical pneumonia and very similar to Legionnaires disease.
@onewing You're absolutely right about birds and al fresco dining, of course. I think the worst incursion I've seen was a large goanna which walked into an inside eatery at Twin Waters while a whole bunch of international academics were having breakfast at a conference. The ensuing panic and screaming was very, very funny. I was more amused by the staff member who just calmly picked up a straw broom and swooshed the goanna gently back outside. So sorry to hear you had psittacosis, it's a terrible illness. So pleased you pulled through OK. Fascinating story about the dust-storm!!
@golftragic Lovely story about the goanna. I saw a water dragon in a cafe by the river at Morpeth when my sister was visiting from the UK. She was fascinated and took lots of photos of it.
Moral of the psittacosis story is don't breath in a dust storm.
They are so cheeky they wouldn't care what you did
I agree that this chap has done this trick once or twice before. He had a friend with him, but the other lorikeet wasn't as brave. This was the cheeky one and didn't even move when I got out the camera to take his photo. Could end up on Crimewatch couldn't he.
I got psittacosis a few years ago and not because I was particularly close to parrots. It was a year which was very dry and we had huge dust storms. Unfortunately, diseased parrots poop it then it dries and ends up airborne. I just happened to breathe in at the wrong time along with a few hundred other people in our area and psittacosis was a big problem that year. Not a very pleasant atypical pneumonia and very similar to Legionnaires disease.
Moral of the psittacosis story is don't breath in a dust storm.