Hi everyone,

To start us off, I would like to congratulate our members for their amazing achievements in 2022. Using our project data and iNaturalist data combined, we now have almost 1000 observations of the plants that rainbow lorikeets have been feeding on! What an outstanding achievement. Of these observations, we have been able to identify 136 species of plants on which rainbow lorikeets feed! While the ultimate goal of this study is to identify the plant or plants that are most likely to cause LPS, the data that we are generating is also demonstrating how lorikeets use native and introduced vegetation in an urban environment to meet their nutritional needs.

Now that we have a lot of observational data, our next point of action will be to have some geospatial analysis done of our collated data, comparing sick bird locations with plant locations. An experienced ecologist and GIS analysts will be conducting this work to look at any relationships and patterns between sites, conditions and environments. It is hoped this analysis will allow us to narrow down our toxic culprit.

Lastly, a welcome to our some new members who have joined the project in the last couple of months: @warrenlfraser , @lrhardy , and @amanda3120 . Thank-you for your interest in the project and we look forward to seeing your observations! This puts us at 124 members to finish off the year.

Our whole team would like to wish all our members a Merry Christmas and happy holidays!

Stay safe and happy Rainbow lorikeet spotting!

Lauren, David, Maya, Holly