The Scaly Breasted Lorikeet has a plain but beautiful arrangement of colours. The body is different shades of green. Intercepted by yellow barring on the breast, spreading down to the abdomen. The beak ranges from light orange to dark red. The underside of the tail is yellow. The wings are red with black at the edges
Found all along the eastern coast and the eastern half of the southern coast of Australia. This bird extends further west than any other Lorikeet inhabiting the eastern side of Australia.
Mainly feeding on tree blossoms and some insects, they have readily adapted to introduced fruit crops. Preferring timbered areas and roosting in large noisy flocks at night, they set out to forage all day returning at night to the same roost. Breeding from August to January, the usual number of eggs is two. When the local food supply runs out, they may disappear overnight, having moved on to search for a more productive area.
Therefore, an orchardist may have few lorikeets one day and thousands the next. Often many hundreds of Scaly-breasted Lorikeets can be seen feeding with equal numbers of Rainbow Lorikeets.Being unprepared, may result in major losses.
Early installation is very important and constant management to deal with any rogues is required. It is not unusual to see lorikeets sitting high in the treetops (bordering an orchard protected by Bird Gard) wanting to fly down into the orchard, but being kept at bay by the constant harassment of the sounds below.