Painted Honeyeater, Australia’s Original Mistletoe Bird.

At the start of a walk to the Granites in Currawinya National Park in south-west Queensland I caught a brief glimpse of a honeyeater in a Wilga tree (Geijera parviflora) which I thought was a Painted Honeyeater however before I could raise my bins to confirm it, a Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater chased the bird out of the tree. Given Painted Honeyeaters (Grantiella picta) are elusive and rarely observed I was somewhat disappointed to have missed a close sighting of the species and a possible photo opportunity.

An hour or so later we returned to the start of the walk and were enjoying a cuppa in the shade of the Wilga tree when a Painted Honeyeater turned up in the dead branches of an adjoining tree, allowing confirmation of my earlier tentative ID.  Naturally I was keen to capture some photos of this elusive bird and managed 21 hurried photos in quick succession.  However I felt I had not captured one acceptable photo as the bird darted this way and that, not stopping for long in any of its many positions. Somewhat disappointed we moved on and I did not give the photos any further thought until they were downloaded to my laptop and I looked through them. Before I describe the story the photos later revealed, some background information on this unusual honeyeater will provide some context.

The Painted Honeyeater, an Australian endemic, is unique, being the only frugivore honeyeater - a dietary specialist largely dependent on the fruit of mistletoe plants. Their migratory and nomadic movements are influenced by fruiting mistletoe. Described as rare and elusive, they generally can’t be found easily, so observing them is uncommon with most encounters by pure chance. Their distinctive call, once learnt, is a good way of detecting this elusive species.

Now back to the photos which on close inspection revealed two activities of interest. I first noticed in some photos that the bird was collecting spider webs, not apparent in the field when I was preoccupied with the camera. This explained why the bird moved about so rapidly and erratically in the dead branch and why capturing good photos was a challenge. 

Of course the gathering of webs indicated the bird was building a nest. Given the bird was nest building this breeding attempt showed there must have been at least two Painted Honeyeaters and enough fruiting mistletoe to support a breeding attempt. There were significant stands of Mulga (Acacia aneura) in the area carrying mistletoe.

The following six photos show the Painted Honeyeater collecting spider webs.

Please click on photos to enlarge.

The second point of interest was found in the first photo taken which revealed the bird defecating a short string of mistletoe fruit, (see photo below) which in turn led me to think about the relationship between mistletoe and the Painted Honeyeater. 

By chance I had recently read David Watson’s excellent book, Mistletoes of Southern Australia(1), where he describes the role of Painted Honeyeaters in mistletoe’s deep time speciation and radiation in Australia – there are some seventy mistletoe species, usually with special relationships with particular tree species.

It is well known that today in Australia the Mistletoebird(2), an extreme dietary specialist, is largely responsible for the survival and spread of mistletoe. However molecular studies have shown the Mistletoebird, a flowerpecker species, arrived in Australia from Asia less than 1 million years ago, well after Australia’s diverse mistletoe species had evolved and spread across the continent. The Painted Honeyeater diverged from northern Queensland and New Guinea rainforest frugivores some 16 million years ago, well before the Mistletoebird’s arrival in Australia. David Watson provides a more detailed description of this story in his book where he, with justification, claims the Painted Honeyeater was Australia’s original mistletoe bird. 

One of the big attractions of birding for me is demonstrated by the above experience - a chance encounter in outback Queensland with an elusive honeyeater can lead to an understanding and appreciation of the deep time evolution and spread across Australia of a diversity of ecologically important parasitic plant species and their co-dependent relationship with a bird species. 

(1) My title for this post is borrowed from David M Watson, author of Mistletoes of Southern Australia, Illustrations by Robyn Hully, CSIRO Publishing (see page 135).

(2) This early Avithera post features a Mistletoebird extracting a seed from a mistletoe fruit. https://avithera.blogspot.com/2013/06/mistletoebird.html

White-winged Fairy-wrens

White-winged Fairy-wrens live in the harshest places. Their range covers a large area of inland Australia which largely coincides with arid Australia (1) and within this area they occupy habitat that is mostly devoid of trees and small shrubs. While the Variegated and Splendid Fairy-wren’s ranges also cover a large area of arid Australia these two species prefer habitat with good tree and shrub cover. 

I particularly admire the resilience of White-winged Fairy-wrens and their adaption to some of Australia’s harshest environments. 

The following photos were captured on a recent trip to south-west Queensland and north-west NSW. They include a mature male in full breeding plumage, a young male just starting to moult to adult plumage and develop the adult male black bill and a female with an orange-buff bill which is darker at the tip.

Please click on photos to enlarge.

This adult male in full breeding plumage needs no introduction.

The female White-winged Fairy-wren – note the bill colour. There is some blue in the tail otherwise she is all brown.

Juvenile male – note some white feathers emerging on the wing and dark patches on the bill.

Female and juvenile male together. The juvenile male is on the left.

Note (1) 

The arid area of inland Australia can be defined by the ratio of the average annual rainfall divided by the average annual evaporation being less than or equal to 0.4. The arid area encompasses all of Australia’s deserts.

Note (2) for the photographers 

The very high contrast between the adult male’s intensely vivid and almost metallic blue plumage and dark eyes and the pure white feathers on their wings makes exposure a challenge. Full sun during the middle of the day is very harsh adding to the exposure  challenge. So overcast conditions with high cloud and diffuse light, or some shade – which is mostly not available given the bird’s habitat preference - or early or late in the day can help with achieving a balanced exposure.

Grey-crowned Babblers

The Grey-crowned Babbler is our largest babbler, and is one of four Babbler species in Australia. Like all other Babbler species they are intensely social birds living in close knit family groups usually comprising from 4 to 10 birds. They feed mostly on the ground using their curved and pointed bills to dig vigorously in soil for insects, particularly larvae. Insects and spiders are also gleaned from under the bark of trees.

Living in open woodland habitats they are generally wary and hard to approach, however around camp grounds where they become used to people they will often forage through a camp site when close observation is possible. This was the case in the Warrumbungle National Park Blackman Campground where we spent a few nights recently.

Babbler young help build large domed stick nests for roosting and breeding and assist with feeding young. The family group are constantly chattering to one another to maintain their close bond, hence the name babbler. In addition from time to time they perch close together and indulge in group grooming and on the ground they can sometimes be found in what looks like group play which I assume helps maintain the family bond. 

This behaviour is hard to see in groups not used to human presence however at Blackman camp a group of eight birds comprising young (with dark iris – the adult Grey-crowns have a yellow iris) broke off from foraging a number of times over 15 minutes or so to indulge in group play where up to six birds including both adults and juveniles huddled close together on the ground. The following photos show the behaviour which was in no way aggressive but looked like play to me.

Please click on photos to enlarge.

The photos were taken late in the day with rain threatening so light was low hence high ISO was required making the photos a little grainy.

The first few photos show individual birds – the rest are of the group behaviour where there is a tangle of bodies in many positions with heads, wings and legs poking out here and there.

White-winged Choughs and Apostlebirds are also intensely social birds sharing many group behaviour characteristics with the Babblers.

Wandering Tattler at Brunswick Heads NSW

The Wandering Tattler is an uncommon summer migrant to Australia and is usually solitary (1). In non-breeding plumage it can be difficult to distinguish from the closely related Grey-tailed Tattler. The Wandering tend to frequent rocky shores, their preferred habitat, whereas the Grey-tailed use sand and mud flats. However, as there are exceptions to most rules, these habitat preference differences should not be relied on to determine the identity of either species. As for most migrant shorebirds, the daily lives of both these Tattler species in Australia are strongly influenced by tidal movements. 

The rocky headland on the north side of the Brunswick River entrance within the Brunswick Head Nature Reserve has proved to be a good location for me to find the Wandering Tattler over a number of years now. On the 6th of May I found a solitary bird in partial breeding plumage. Given it is late in the migration season it is likely this bird will over-winter in Australia and is probably a young bird that has not reached breeding maturity. 

The rocky headland provides an abundance and rich diversity of marine life at low tide where the lone Wandering Tattler was found actively foraging among the seaweed and associated molluscs and marine worms. At one point though the bird took a brief break and attempted to rest or sleep in a moderately brisk sea breeze. It soon commenced foraging again, taking full advantage of the low tide.

The photos below were all taken with the same camera and camera settings with a strong early afternoon late autumn back light (relative to the photographer) and yet the colour of the bird varies greatly in the series of photos as it moved about over the rocky shore. This natural plumage colour variation due to light angle and the character of the light due to reflection from the surrounding surfaces, adds to the challenge of identifying birds. The first photo shows the partial breeding plumage best. In some photos the bird has an overall brownish colour and in others it looks grey.

Please click on photos to enlarge.

NOTES

(1) Birdata records for the two Tattler species in Australia provide a measure of the relative abundance of both via the number of surveys in which they are recorded. The Wandering at the time of writing had 2,474 Birdata records whereas the Grey-tailed had 37,827 records, a ratio of 1:15.3. I suspect that a good number of Wandering Tattlers go unreported as they are mistaken for Grey-tails however the ratio is still much in favour of the far more numerous Grey-tailed Tattler.

(2) You can find an earlier 2017 post featuring a non-breeding Wandering Tattler found at the same location here: https://avithera.blogspot.com/2021/07/wandering-tattler.html

Black-shouldered Kites

Black-shouldered Kites in Australia have done well since white-settlement with farming and cropping resulting in large areas of open country, which they prefer, and the introduction of rats and mice which sometimes experience waste grain based population explosions when raptor populations can also erupt. This may explain why in East Gippsland we have Black-shouldered Kites in some years and then seemingly none or very few in others.

This beautiful kite can often be seen hovering (1) over open country as it scans for a range of prey items with rodents particularly favoured. As rodents are nocturnal kites are often active in the early morning and late in the day when their prey are more likely to be out and about. During the day the birds may be found resting as was the case recently when I was fortunate to find a pair together by a road-side affording the opportunity to use the car to approach them and use as a hide for some photos.

Please click on photos to enlarge.

This Avithera post features two Black-shouldered Kites feeding on rats. https://avithera.blogspot.com/2013/06/post-script-to-autumn-morning-birding.html

(1) You can find some photos of a Black-shouldered Kite hovering here: https://avithera.blogspot.com/2017/12/black-shouldered-kite-hovering.html