Unlike most parrots, which crack seeds with powerful beaks, rainbow lorikeets have a specialised brush-tipped tongue covered in tiny papillae that lets them lap up nectar and pollen like a living paintbrush. This nectar-heavy diet means they're constantly buzzing with sugar, which partly explains their famously rowdy, acrobatic personalities — and why a flock raiding a flowering eucalypt can sound like a pub at closing time.