Scaly-breasted Lorikeet

This is Tweetie, about six to eight months old.
An unbelievable transformation took place after we decided to move Tweety and Bobby into a new aviary that had just been built. From the moment a small cage was brought into the aviary, that she and Bobby shared with three Rainbows and Blue Streak, Tweety practically jumped into the cage. This was used to move her to the new aviary. Bobby followed a few minutes later.
Tweety then, as the first bird in the new aviary, took control, flapped about in excitement and started cooing and singing. A totally different bird now full of life, obviously very happy and excited at the new home.
She no longer avoided human company, she would respond with much cooing and beak chattering when talked to and more surprising would jump on a shoulder and refuse to leave. She would chatter away, whistle and lean forward to listen and watch lips move as she was spoken to.
Heather was also able to take her out, on a shoulder, to the garden and walk around or do gardening and Tweetie would be happy to continuously chatter away. Getting her off the shoulder was becoming a real problem.

This image shows Tweetie in a much better physical condition. Her tail feather have re-grown and the clipped wing looks much better although it does not seem to fold correctly over her back. She has one wing that sits up prominently and one that tucks under, this gives her an unbalanced appearance but not seen to effect her ability to fly. No more fluttering to the floor with a thud, she can now almost perfectly fly, just a bit wobbly.
Her eyes have now developed a darker orange ring in place of the light grey ring and her body mass has increased by near twofold.

10 August 2000
Sadly, today, Tweetie died, it appears that she had become stuck in her water bath and drowned. At 11am she was her normal self and at afternoon feed time about 3pm she was found dead in the water bath. It is likely that she was unable to escape because of her broken wing that meant she could only fly a very short distance and could only flutter downwards. She could not fly off the ground. Tweetie will be greatly missed.



Scaly image 12













































Page owner: <dgd@kcbbs.gen.nz>
Last modified: 12 May 2000