Edible flowers delight the eye as well as the palate and are becoming quite popular with adventurous cooks. But people have used flowers as food for thousands of years-and so have parrots! A glance through the pages of Parrots

of the World, alerts one to the huge variety of parrot species that feed on flowering trees. Perhaps the many colorful blossoms are the very reason for the irresistibly beautiful colors that adorn parrots. Just imagine yourself a winged

predator trying to spot red and green Lories, Lorikeets, or Eclectus parrots among the red blossoms and green leaves of a flowering African Tulip tree-this is Mother Nature's camouflage at its best!

According to Joseph Forshaw in Parrots of the World, many parrots feed on fruits, nuts, seeds, berries, leaf buds, blossoms and nectar procured in the treetops. The Rainbow Lory feeds on the blossoms of the Scarlet bottle-brush

(Myrtacae) tree. Dusky Lories have been observed feeding in flowering Pittosporum ramiflorum trees. Varied Lorikeets have been seen feeding among the flowers of blood-woods (Eucalyptus terminalis), paperbarks (Melaleuca

leucodendron), Kapok trees (Cochlospermum heteronemum) and Bauhinia trees. Black Cockatoos in the coastal woodlands of New South Wales were observed tearing apart Banksia inflorescences, presumably to extract nectar or

to get at insects. Sulphur crested Cockatoos near Adelaide, South Australia have been observed feeding on the flowering heads of milk thistle (Silybum marianum) and Little Corella Cockatoos in Northern Australia have been seen

feeding on the blooms of Melaleuca leucodendron. In Africa, a flock of Cape Parrots in eastern Cape Province were seen feeding on nectar from Kaffirboom (Erythrina caffra). Nyasa Lovebirds have been observed feeding on the

blossoms of Acacia albida. Blue-headed Pionus and most other members of the Pionus family have a diet that consists of fruits, berries, seeds, and blossoms, generally procured among the higher branches of the trees.