Lorikeets are brightly colored birds and are hard to miss in the wild, next to the dark trees of their natural habitat. Their coloring ranges from a combination of bright blue, green, yellow, red and deep purple. Lorikeets are limited to only eating soft foods. Lorikeets have tiny hair-like appendages, known as papillae, on their tongues which help them consume food. They possess specially designed beaks that are pointy and narrow to extract seeds from hard to reach fruits.

There are currently 53 subspecies of lorikeets. The destruction of their habitat and the introduction of new species, such as snakes and rats, have caused the lorikeet population to decline. Lorikeets are often viewed as pests in New Zealand because they destroy crops.