Rainbow lorikeets feast on leftover fruit, Rockdale NSW, Australia

13 July 2025

A colourful assortment of rainbow lorikeets scavenge for food in a cardboard box containing discarded grapes and orange peels, next to stacks of fruit crates on a footpath. Small orange pieces of fruit are scattered around, while a common myna bird is visible nearby.

I’m not sure if the owner of a fruit shop in the Sydney suburb of Rockdale leaves leftover fruit out for birds living in the area to feast on, or if these rainbow lorikeets just decided to help themselves.

Whatever, this group of colourful parrots seem to be enjoying a late afternoon meal, even if some of them look as if they’ve eaten enough. An usually subdued common myna bird lurks alone near the fruit box, perhaps hoping the lorikeets will soon move on.

While both species of bird seem cute, both are considered to be pests to some degree. Rainbow lorikeets often descend on orchards and can destroy fruit harvests.

The brown mynas meanwhile, which were introduced to Australia in the nineteenth century, are classified as an invasive pest, and there are concerns they pose a threat to other native birds.