Photos courtesy of Jessica Pineda I should know better about wearing jewelry around rambunctious lorikeets.

I've seen birds "dive" for their food, but these lories actually dove.

I haven’t had a chance to volunteer at the Aquarium of the Pacific, in Long Beach, Calif., for more than a month, so I eagerly threw myself into a day of sea cucumbers, sea stars, sea anemones, sea snails — and lorikeets!

Being that I used to work in a bird store, I should know better about wearing jewelry around rambunctious parrots. My replica of a shark tooth necklace earned the attention of four — four! — rainbow lories. While they were crawling all over me, trying to get my necklace, they soon discovered the buttons on my shirt. It was quite a game for them; they would undo the buttons and then I’d redo them — like I was doing it just for them!

I happened to be in the lorikeet aviary right around closing time. When the last of the visitors left, it was feeding time! Now that was something else; I’ve seen birds “dive” for their food bowl — my Meyer’s parrot, Garth, will jam for his vegetables when I put them on top of his cage. But these fully-flighted lories literally dove, like missiles, using their expert flying skills to flare out their wings and tail feathers and land safely. Well, most of them. A few landed past the food bowls, some landed on the ground and others … well, I had more than one land on my head.

It’s so much different interacting with a flock of birds than just an individual bird. The aviculturists know each of them just by looking at them, which is quite impressive. I am not as familiar with lories as I am with other parrots, but it is fun to watch them strut, bicker, play fight and fly after each other like kids at recess. 

This is why I love volunteering!

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