Lorikeet feeding on Magnetic Island

The hostel I stayed at on Magnetic Island, just off the coast from Townsville in Queensland, was wonderful and doubled as an animal reserve. Every day at 5pm, they would lug out a big bucket of Lorikeet feed and place it on the ground. 100s of wild Lorikeets would then swarm the food, freaking out and creating a hug racket – they are very loud birds. We were then able to take some the food in our hands and they would then jump on you and freak out while feeding of your hand. In this shot, it got a little out of hand, as some food fell on my shirt, so they started hanging on to the front of my shirt, clawing me and jamming their beaks in to my skin. So, what you see here is that always-curious mixture of pure happiness and pain experienced at the same time.