Great that others have seen it. I will be going out again to look for it, I
would expect it to stay around a while (who knows how long it has been
already, surely at least since Friday). I would really appreciate further
follow ups (not just for me-too-isms) but to get some further information
about the behaviour of this bird, how long it stays in the area, and in
particular its interactions with other honeyeaters. I did not notice any leg
bands, no one else has commented.
It appears that as the species gets rare and is now mostly observed as
isolated individuals (when not breeding) as distinct from the big flocks of
decades ago, it is now increasingly impacted by competition from other
honeyeaters. Whether it is the aggressor or the one being chased, it still
uses a lot of energy in this agro (although most honeyeaters do), that it
probably would do less of, if there were more of them around. When I saw it
though briefly (unfortunately I could not stay after it flew away the first
time) the RH was clearly being the aggressive bird towards the RW.
Just in the last week I have been refereeing an article about this mimicry
from another observer near Newcastle. This is still an area of strong
interest. As for the mimicry, sure it is hard to pick if there is a lot of
surrounding real birds. It is just like Red Wattlebird, except not as loud
or rough (less scratchy sounding). But this bird was also doing a few of its
normal calls.
My bits on this:
Veerman, P.A. (1994) 'Batesian acoustic mimicry by the Regent Honeyeater
Xanthomyza phrygia', Australian Bird Watcher 15: 250-259. (Further evidence,
literature review and analysis of why this bird's mimicry is unique.)
Veerman, P.A. (1992) 'Vocal mimicry of larger honeyeaters by the Regent
Honeyeater Xanthomyza phrygia', Australian Bird Watcher 14: 180-189. (A
discovery and description of an apparently unique behaviour.)
Since the last 20 years, many more cases have been observed, most bird books
mention it and even the Woolworths card series that included the species
mentioned it. Some published or just pers comm and several filmed (by myself
and others). The context of the behaviour in these recent observations has
remained remarkably consistent with the statements made there. However,
there are a few outliers.
Philip
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