Rainbows' end is a life sentence behind bars

By ANNE BESTON environment reporter

A raucous Australian interloper finally faces eviction from Auckland after a court case and public outrage delayed it more than a year.

The colourful rainbow lorikeet, a native of Australia, is being rounded up by Department of Conservation (DoC) staff after being released here about seven years ago.

The department charged North Shore man Rex Gilfillan with releasing 50 of the birds, but he escaped prosecution on a technicality.

He remains opposed to their removal, and bird-lovers rushed to his support last year when the department killed 15 of the birds during a trial eradication.

This time, DoC has decided the colourful parrots will not be killed.

Instead, they will be sold to local caged-bird enthusiasts and to exporters, who say there is a market for them in their homeland.

DoC spokesman Warwick Murray said the rainbow lorikeet (trichoglossus haematodus moluccanus) had been declared an unwanted organism under the Biosecurity Act 1993. He believed that buyers could be found for all the birds - believed to number more than 200.

The lorikeets are nectar-eaters and are found mainly on the North Shore around Birkenhead, where they were originally released.

They have also been spotted on Waiheke Island and in Henderson and Clevedon.

So far six birds have been captured in the latest round-up, which started last month, said DoC's officer in charge of the operation, Paul Keeling.

Sweet bread and fruit and caged "calling birds" are used to lure the lorikeets into traps.

They sometimes swoop on their pursuers, but this was "larrikin behaviour" rather than an attack, said Mr Keeling.

"They're pretty cheeky."

The director of the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society, Kevin Smith, said the release of the lorikeets threatened our native nectar-eaters such as tui.

The parrots should be captured while their numbers were still relatively small, he said.

"If people love lorikeets so much, they should go to Australia to see them."