Geoffrey and all,
It is indeed the Varied Honeyeater in PNG. Several of the banding team were up there (Port Moresby and Madang) in July and they drove us mad by calling half the night and very early in the morning!!
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year one and all!
Cheers,
Mark
From: Geoffrey Dabb [
Sent: Friday, 20 December 2013 12:41 PM
To:
Subject: FW: [canberrabirds] singing honeyeater
Yet another honeyeater with an unusual distribution. As appears from the 2nd BA atlas it is spread across most of Australia. Above pic of a bird near its nest at Lake Mungo. The lower (current atlas) map brings out the coastal distribution in western Vic where it can be common in pockets of tea-tree scrub around beach houses. Lower pic from Flinders at mouth of Western Port. In some old books it is listed as occurring in coastal New Guinea. We used to think this was the bird on Fisherman’s Island near Port Moresby. However that is now said to be the Varied Honeyeater, a similar bird common in mangroves around Cairns. There does not seem to be a close equivalent in coastal NSW.
Singing HE VERY easy to locste this morning at 5:45 am. Very vocal and on display in shrubs and trees just to the west of the turnoff to Leverrier st, along dam edge.
-------- Original message --------
From: Marnix Zwankhuizen <m("gmail.com","marnix.zwankhuizen");">>
Date: 19/12/2013 7:48 PM (GMT+10:00)
To: Noel Luff <m("gmail.com","noelluff");">>
Cc: m("canberrabirds.org.au","canberrabirds");">
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] singing honeyeater
Hi All
I finally located the Singing Honeyeater at 7:30 this evening after half an hour searching. It was making its 'brrrrt' call plus other gurgling noises from a small shrub in the grassland across the road from the dam. It flew across Leverrier St to a wattle where it perched on an exposed branch and continued to call for a few minutes. I then lost it when it flew across to a eucalypt at the SE corner of the dam.
mail <m("canberrabirds.org.au","coglists-owner");">>
