RAINBOW lorikeets, renowned for their screeching, have been distinctly louder in the Adelaide Botanic Gardens recently – because they are getting drunk.

Hundreds of the brightly coloured native Australians have been descending on a Weeping Boer-bean tree (Schotia brachypetala) near the Summer House to drink fermenting nectar from its crimson flowers.

Commonly known as the Drunken Parrot Tree, the flowers bloom in late spring through to early summer, providing the lorikeets with all the ingredients for an avian dawn-to-dusk tree house party.

The birds get intoxicated, similar to native wood pigeons in New Zealand, kereru, which gorge on fermenting, rotting fruit before falling from branches to the ground.

The kereru were popular with the Maori, who would wait until they were drunk before clubbing them and cooking them.

Luckily for the Botanic Gardens lorikeets, they are not as plump or tasty as the kereru.