The prefered habitat is coastal forests as well as urban gardens. Noisy flocks of up to several hundred may congregate in flowering trees to feed and roost, at times in the company of Scaly Breasted Lorikeets. Breeding in the wild is from August to January. The Rainbow Lorikeet is one of maybe 18 to 20 subspecies of T. haematodus , a complex which is widely distributed through the southwest Pacific islands, Papua-New Guinea and Indonesia. The Rainbow is easily the most popular lorikeet kept in Australian aviculture, and breeds freely.
Housing is best as a single pair to a flight, since they can be quarrelsome in the breeding season.
Suspended aviaries around 3.5 metres long are the prefered accomodation. A 30 cm by 30 cm by 45 cm high nestbox can be used, and the usual precautions for keeping the Lorikeet nestbox clean are required. Two eggs are laid, and incubation by the hen takes 24 days. The babies fledge at around 56 to 60 days, and the young become independent after a further 14 days. Double or even triple brooding is likely, especially if babies are removed for hand rearing.