# data[].attributes.body
In conclusion, natural selection is the phenomenon in which members of a species that are not adapted to their environment end up dead and are not able to pass on the traits which made them vulnerable, whatever that may be. The environment in which the lorikeets reside are forests which are lush with foliage, allowing such colorful feathers to come into being.

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.britannica.com/animal/budgerigar

https://www.britannica.com/animal/koala

https://denverzoo.org/animals/lorikeet/#:~:text=Lorikeets%20have%20zygodactyl%20feet%2C%20two,them%20safe%20from%20potential%20predators.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Table of Contents

lorikeet, (subfamily Loriinae), any of 53 species of medium-sized vocal and exceptionally colourful parrots of Australia and New Guinea that feed on pollen and nectar. They have brush-tipped tongues that help sweep food into the mouth. They also eat small insects and are important pollinators of many trees, including coconut palms. Lories have shorter tails but are similar and belong to the same subfamily.

The rainbow lorikeet ( Trichoglossus haematodus) is among the most spectacular and variable of the group, with 21 races scattered over the southwestern Pacific. Most races of this 150-gram (5-ounce) species have red bills, blue heads, green wings, and black feet, though the colour and pattern of the chest, neck, and belly vary dramatically. Screeching, chattering flocks feed in the upper canopy and nest in hollow trees, sometimes in the company of flocks of other fruit- and nectar-eating species. At night they gather, sometimes by the thousands, in communal roosts.

In the dry scrub of southern Australia, breathtakingly colourful purple-crowned lorikeets ( Glossopsitta porphyrocephala) gather in small nomadic flocks to eat fruit, pollinating the flowering mallee in the process. Along with a deep purple cap, the head has red-and-yellow cheek pads. The chin and chest are sky blue, and the green wings are ornamented with red, blue, and green on the undersides. Colonies of these lorikeets nest in tree holes. Though both members of a pair may roost in the unlined hollow, only the female incubates the two or three eggs.

Sy Montgomery

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
lorikeet, (subfamily Loriinae), any of 53 species of medium-sized vocal and exceptionally colourful parrots of Australia and New Guinea that feed on pollen and nectar. They have brush-tipped tongues that help sweep food into the mouth. They also eat small insects and are important pollinators of many trees, including coconut palms. Lories have shorter tails but are similar and belong to the same subfamily.

# data[].attributes.body
Binomial- Psittacus moluccanus

Distribution- Eastern seabord of Australia, all over the rest of the Southwest Pacific

Avg. Weight- 5 oz.

Coloration- Red bills, blue heads, green wings, and black feet

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
A picture of two Scaly-Breasted Lorikeets. Organism A will be the one on the left, and Organism B the one on the right. Organism A is much lighter in coloration than Organism B, with mostly lime green feathers compared to Organism B's brown, gray, and dark green ones. Organism A also has an orange beak, which sharply contrasts with Organism B's black beak. Organism B has a ring of white feathers directly surrounding its eye, whereas no such trait exists in Organism A.

# data[].attributes.body
The lorikeet can be found in Australia (on the eastern seaboard, as far south as Tasmania), the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, and various other islands and places in Polynesia. It lives primarily in forested/wooded areas such as a rainforest or a coastal brush area.

# data[].attributes.body
Lorikeets are a species of parrot, and it is widely believed that the defining characteristic of their appearances, their distinctly colorful feathers, evolved in order to make it easier for them to attract mates.

# data[].attributes.body
The Budgerigar (melopsittacus undulatus, also known as the Common Parakeet), is of the tribe Melopsittacus in the Melopsittaci Genus, which is one of three in the Loriinae subfamily of birds, to which the Lorikeet belongs to through the tribe Loriini. They are found all throughout Southeast Asia, including Australia where its distant cousins live, but also as far west as Sri Lanka and India. Budgerigars typically weigh somewhere between 1.1 to 1.4 ounces.

A notable difference between the budgerigars and the lorikeets is the coloration of their feathers. The lorikeets have a much more diverse spectrum of coloration than their green and yellow extended relatives. The size of their beaks is also exponentially different, with the budgerigars possessing smaller beaks than their lorikeet cousins.

# data[].attributes.body
The Koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) are a marsupial which also lives on the eastern seaboard of Australia, generally weighing 31 pounds. They are short and plump, they have round, black noses, and their fur is colored gray. This species is as distantly related as it gets from the Lorikeet, but both have adapted to their shared forested environment in different ways. The Lorikeets evolved prominent structural, physiological, and behavioral adaptations in order to help it evade predators and attract mates, such as their zygodactyl feet, the papillae on their tongues, or their distinct coloration and mating rituals. Koalas, on the other hand, have also developed claws on their feet to help perch themselves in trees (Structural), they've developed a cecum (Physiological) in their intestines to help digest the toxins present in Eucalyptus leaves which is the sole aspect of their diet, and they generally live alone and move only as far as 12 trees apart in their life, preferring one over all the others (Behavioral).

Although they are wildly different creatures with different needs, they still need the strength to cling onto the trees in their shared densely wooded environment, as well as the ability to eat and digest the food scattered throughout the lush fauna that the east coast of Australia has to offer.

# data[].attributes.body
Lorikeets have papillae, short hairs on the tip of their tongue inside their beaks, which allow them to extract nectar and pollen from the lush forested environment in which they live.

# data[].attributes.body
Lorikeets boast what are called zygodactyl feet, which is when two toes face forward and two face back, which provides incredible strength to grip onto tree branches. This allows them the opportunity to hang upside down and feed on nearby nectar and pollen.