Lorikeet and Secretary Bird

A couple more birds just flew in from the San Diego Zoo Wild Animal Park. The lorikeet is a multicolored parrot from Australia that lives on nectar. At the enclosure at the park you can buy little cups of nectar and the fearless birds will land on your hand to partake. Which is all very convenient for taking a few photos.

The secretary bird attracts a crowd not because of his colors, which are not very spectacular at all, but because of his gawky shape and the feather quills that stick out from the back of his head. Many sites claim the bird gets its name from these quills and the white and black tunic-like coloring of the bird which is suggestive of a male secretary from bygone-days, but the posting for the secretary bird at the Wild Animal Park's website states that the name of the bird most likely comes from the Arabic saqr-et-tair, or “hunter bird.” Anyhow, the bird struts up and down his enclosure constantly looking for prey, and when he finds a bug or whatever it is he is interested in, he jumps up in the air and stomps on it. Quite entertaining actually!

See these and other birds in the Bird Photo Gallery