Yellow-tufted Honeyeater in Gordon [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

["Geoffrey Dabb" <>]

Perhaps newcomers to this list would enjoy a restaging of the Zwankhuizen/Veerman symposium on “Is the Yellow-tufted Honeyeater a rare species in Canberra?”.  Apart from the actual occurrence of the YTHE, this exchange cast valuable light on the meaning of ‘rare’.  As I recall, Marnix, unlike Philip, attached conclusive importance to the ‘one-binocular’ designation of the species [see McComas Taylor & Nicolas Day (1993) Birds of the ACT ]   

 

From: martin butterfield [
Sent: Friday, 15 May 2009 11:20 AM
To: Perkins, Harvey
Cc: Esme Barker and Bruce Ramsay; Canberra Birds
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] Yellow-tufted Honeyeater in Gordon [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

 

 I reckon Bruce's comment "a pretty unusual recording occurrence" is spot on.

To the end of last GBS year there are 36 records (species x site x year) of Yellow-tufted Honeyeater (YTHE) in the GBS ranking it as 116th out of 233 "species".  There are 95 observations (species x site x year x week) of the species giving it a rank of 127 of 233.  The species has been recorded in 17/27 years spread fairly evenly through the period. So, to state the obvious, it is not a common species. 

Of the 36 records, 22 contain a single record (ie only seen one week in a year at a site).  Of the 12 multi-observation records only 2 are scattered.  7 records - including ones with 7-9 observations - consist of records consisting of a single string of consecutive observations and the other 3 have a string of several consecutive weeks with one or two separate but not distant observations.  So in about a quarter of cases where the species fronts up it will hang around for more than a week.

I have yet to check the coincidence of YTHE and White plumed Honeyeater (as the Yankees-Blue Jays game is getting interesting) but I will see what can be gleaned about that later today.

I have put quotes around "species" above as we now have a GBS code for Rosella hybrid so could Harvey record it as such on his chart.

Martin

On Fri, May 15, 2009 at 10:45 AM, Perkins, Harvey <> wrote:

Hi Bruce,

 

I'm at work so don't have access to my records, but that sounds very much like my experience last year of a Yellow-tufted Honeyeater that hung around for about three weeks (though without the White-plumes). It was the first time I had recorded YTHE at my Kambah GBS site in 14 years. Haven't seen one (yet?) this year, but there are a couple, possibly three, White-plumes hanging around for the past three weeks.

 

And this morning I had a fully-intermediate Crimson/Eastern Rosella hybrid in the garden.

 

Harvey Perkins
CRC Strategy and Communication Section
_______________________________________
Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research

 

 

---

From: Esme Barker and Bruce Ramsay [
Sent: Friday, 15 May 2009 10:37 AM
To: Canberrabirds
Subject: [canberrabirds] Yellow-tufted Honeyeater in Gordon

After an absence since Thursday of last week, a Yellow-tufted Honeyeater is back in my GBS site this morning. It was together with 9 White-plumed Honeyeaters, as was the bird which was here last Thursday.

 

That's 3 consecutive GBS weeks that the species has been here - which from looking through my ABR's, seems to be a pretty unusual recording occurrence.

 

Bruce

 

 

 

 

 

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