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Tag: Honeyeater

Deep South WA, Feb ‘25 (#31 in series: “rush hour” at the birdbath)

 

As is true of humans’ bathrooms, bathhouses and drinking venues, other species’ “watering holes” can be a “serene place of refuge” at one time of day, and “mayhem” at another.

On 08 February 2025, 3pm to 4 pm was “peak hour” at the birdbath in front of “our” cottage near Youngs Siding.

It looked sorely in need of an Air Traffic Control Tower!

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Deep South WA, Feb ‘25 (#30 in series: two species, sharing “3”)

 

 

At least between the pictured species, “Two honeyeater species, sharing a birdbath” is a perfectly unremarkable, “normal” event.

On the left – sticking out his or her long, “brush-tipped” nectar-collecting tongue – is a New Holland honeyeater, Phylidonyris novaehollandiae.

On the right is a bird that is very clearly a species in its own right, but was not recognised as such until 2010.

It never really was a subspecies of the (eastern Australian) White-naped honeyeater, Melithreptus lunatus.

At last blessed with a single, “proper” common name – and its own “Latin” species name – Gilbert’s honeyeater, Melithreptus chloropsis, lives only in Western Australia’s southwest.

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Deep South WA, Feb ‘25 (#8 in series: honeyeaters, drinking)

 

 

Some birds – individuals & species – prefer to be alone, when drinking or bathing.

Others are happy to “share the facilities”…or they have to share them; flocking birds may be within a group of many – even many thousands – of individuals.

On some afternoons in February 2025 (near Youngs Siding, between Albany & Denmark) the “line up” at the birdbath reminded me of “the six o’clock swill” – an unlovely feature of most Australasian pub “culture” for surprisingly much of the 20th century.

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Wireless Hill – feathers & flower spikes (#3 of 3)

 

In appearance, Lichmera indistincta – the brown honeyeater – is a strong contender for an “undesirable” title: Australia’s most plain/drab/nondescript honeyeater.

This species’ song, however, is widely considered the finest of any Australian honeyeater’s; clear recordings of it are here. (the second grab is the better one)

The pictured brown honeyeaters are young individuals who dine on pollen & nectar from plants that naturally occur only in southwest Western Australia.

However, brown honeyeaters are highly adaptable; they live across parts of all mainland Australian states and territories, except Victoria;

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