Yellow-tufted HE status.

Philip,
Its taken a little time to reply to
your email, but I had to go back and check my sources.

It so happens that I got my information
from none other than your own "Canberra Birds: A Report on the First
21 Years of the Garden Bird Survey" by Philip A. Veerrman (2003).
I have inserted the full text on the
Yellow-tufted Honeyeater (YTHE) from this publication below:

"Yellow-tufted Honeyeater
Lichenostomus melanops
An UNCOMMON species with a seasonal
pattern that is typical of most other honeyeaters, in that it is present
mainly in winter. Taylor (1986) has already suggested it is an altitudinal
migrant. There is no evidence to suggest changes in status. The big peak
in 1982 is largely due to a group of one to seven birds for eight weeks
at Site 5 and that in later years due mainly to Sites 246 & 267 in
Queanbeyan and Site 258 with an observation of ten.
Graphs on page: 99, Rank: 111, A = 0.00323,
F = 2.54%, W = 3.9, R = 0.190%, G = 1.70"

I might have slightly misread some of
it about it being more common in semi-rural areas (eg. sites in Queanbeyan
area), but its still obvious from the above that the YTHE is not a common
bird as you stated.

If you compare the Abundance (A) of
the YTHE (A = 0.00323) with the bird listed just above it in Appendix 1
of the report - Eastern Yellow Robin (A = 0.00545) and the bird just below
it in the report -  Rufous Songlark (A = 0.00456), you can see the
YTHE is not as common as you may think. The species in this list are ranked
by No. of Records, and as we all know this can be deceiving, as the same
bird or group of birds can be recorded many times.

It seems in the 21 years of the GBS
it was recorded in only 15 of those years at 22 sites for a total of 32
records (some of which as stated above were for the same birds at the same
site). Which means in that period there are 6 years with not a single record
in Canberra/Queanbeyan, which in my estimation makes it an uncommon, if
not a rare, bird in these here parts...

Cheers
Marnix

"Philip Veerman" <>

18/07/2005 01:55 PM

To	"Marnix Zwankhuizen" <>, "Peter Milburn" <>
cc	<>
Subject	[canberrabirds] Yellow-tufted HE status.
Classification

Hi Marnix,
 
I was referring to the ACT and Queanbeyan, not the  whole
of the COG area. I wonder where you "read that the majority of GBS
records  nearly all come from rural or semi-rural areas such as Sutton
Rd or Queanbeyan  and not actually within Canberra." Perhaps
a recent ABR that I don't have  nearby. Below is the list of GBS records
from the first  21 years (with actual observations deleted, as it
makes the table too big). I  don't think this agrees with what you
believe you read. I apologise for a  little error in my previous message.
In writing "It has been recorded on most  years in the GBS",
"most" should be "15" (out of the 21). I don't
know  why I was so vague, it is in Appendix 1. 
 
Dare I say I think Peter Milburn's comment about  "frequent,
uncommon and occasional" is about an entirely different  thing. He
writes about things related to how often a person observes a  species.
That is about recording rate, which has any number of biases and  constraints.
It is quite different from species abundance. Not that recording  rate is
not useful for its own purposes but I think it is not at all close  to
the phenomenon of whether a species is "common" or "rare",
which is about  population density. (There is a reason why I called
Figure 33 of the GBS  Report, that shows the link between the
two as "Probably the most important  result of the GBS".
We only observe and record the minutest fraction of the bird  fauna
present in the whole area. 
 
GBS table......

SUBURB	Observer	Observation Year	GBS Site Number
O'CONNOR	E. METCALF	1	4
O'CONNOR	H. NIX	1	5
AINSLIE	IM. TAYLOR	1	18
HUGHES	D. JOHNSON	1	23
CHAPMAN	J & A. HOLLAND	1	32
FLYNN	P. DAVIDSON	1	44
O'CONNOR	H. NIX	2	5
CHAPMAN	J & A. HOLLAND	2	32
YARRALUMLA	R & C. CANNON	2	60
CITY	R. PURDIE	2	64
KAMBAH	K. GOODRIDGE	4	103
AINSLIE	JB. FITZGERALD	5	14
O'CONNOR	H. NIX	6	5
HOLT	D. COWLEY	6	162
HOLT	G & R. ELLIOTT	7	148
MACGREGOR	R. MORPHETT	7	180
CHAPMAN	J & A. HOLLAND	8	32
HOLT	C. DAVEY	8	46
WESTON	BJ. LEPSCHI	8	124
CHAPMAN	J & A. HOLLAND	9	32
CURTIN	S. BERRY	9	193
CHAPMAN	J & A. HOLLAND	11	32
QUEANBEYAN	G. SCHOEFL	14	246
QUEANBEYAN	G. SCHOEFL	15	246
KAMBAH	PA. VEERMAN	16	152
QUEANBEYAN	G. SCHOEFL	16	246
DEAKIN	D. ROSALKY	17	258
QUEANBEYAN	B. RUSK	17	267
QUEANBEYAN	G. SCHOEFL	20	246
CHAPMAN	J & A. HOLLAND	21	32
KAMBAH	D & N. McDONALD	21	213
BELCONNEN	A. LEAVESLEY	21	292