Pissed as a parrot?

Visitors to the Royal Botanic Gardens may need to keep an eye out over the next few weeks for paralytic parrots.

The city's rainbow lorikeets have began flocking to the gardens to indulge in the nectar of Schotia brachypetala, a tree that is now flowering.

"It produces a lot of sweet nectar, a nectar that is a sugary juice. If it ferments in the heat of the sun it can produce alcohol," the gardens' curator, Ian Innes, said yesterday.

Birds over-indulging on the tree appeared to become tipsy, he said.

Larry Vogelnest, senior veterinarian at Taronga Zoo, said lorikeets in northern Australia were known to become intoxicated on fermenting fruit. "Basically they behave like drunk people, staggering around and unco-ordinated."