The Fuscous Honeyeater is now described as ‘Uncommon’ for both the ACT (see the updated checklist
http://canberrabirds.org.au/publications/maps-forms-and-lists/annotated-checklist-of-the-birds-of-the-australian-capital-territory/ ) and COG’s wider Area of Interest (see the latest Annual Bird Report
http://canberrabirds.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/ABR2013-14FinalReportVersion2.pdf ).
The ‘Status’ field under Bird Info tab on the website has not yet been updated to reflect the latest checklist. These is a wealth of data about the Fuscous
Honeyeater in this part of the website
http://canberrabirds.org.au/wp-content/BirdDetailData/Fuscous%20Honeyeater.pdf . The number of records for this species goes through various peaks and troughs, the peaks often coinciding with some concerted survey effort such as the Atlas period 1986-88
and the annual Blitz, which suggests that the species can be found when you go looking in the right places.
Cheers
Nicki Taws
From: Philip Veerman [
Sent: Friday, June 12, 2015 11:00 PM
To: 'Terry Bird'
Cc: 'Julie Clark'; 'COG Chatline'
Subject: RE: [canberrabirds] Fuscous Honeyeater
As for advice to Julie, generally best to get familiar with the call, to then get to see them. Nothing wrong with “uncommon” but
show my point, it is only a word modifier and even less precise than “common”, because it is simply every other status apart from “common” (very rare or abundant perhaps?). I am just as willing to believe the species is both common and uncommon. The
Common breeding species is a reasonable
assessment given that this is part of a list and thus sort of goes by comparison with other species listed. These ideas have value really only in context of assessments of other species. We are lucky here to have sets of statistics from the GBS and other sets
of COG data to help explain these things and be at least reasonably precise. The GBS Report gives for the species:
Fuscous Honeyeater Lichenostomus fuscus
This is one of the less visually conspicuous honeyeaters. At times a group may occupy an area for several weeks during winter and become the most obvious bird around. Small groups of this species sometimes join the other honeyeaters in
their April migration. This species shows a typical altitudinal migrant’s pattern, it is almost absent from October to March, rises through April and May to a peak in June then declines through July to September. It is probably because of these variable congregations
that the abundance and number of sites at which it is recorded (i.e. records) fluctuates dramatically from year to year. The abundance in 1982 was approximately triple the average of all other years, including big observations of up to 100 birds at Site 18.
The absence of nesting records is notable. The only GBS breeding record is one observation of two dependent young in May in Year 21 at Site 203. This could have been from a nesting far away.
Graphs on page: 99, Rank: 42, Breeding Rank: 86, A = 0.15895, F = 37.07%, W = 26.8, R = 5.124%, G = 3.10.
From: Terry Bird
Sent: Friday, 12 June 2015 7:55 PM
To: Philip Veerman
Cc: Julie Clark; COG Chatline
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] Fuscous Honeyeater
What is wrong with uncommon !
Sent from my iPad
On 12 Jun 2015, at 5:41 pm, "Philip Veerman" <> wrote:
Again as always it comes down to what exactly does “common” mean, we do not have any word between common and rare, only modifiers like fairly and
rather. They are easily overlooked. It is usually when they are settled in groups that they become obvious for their chattering call. Jack H covered this all in his COG talk last month. For years 3 houses within my GBS area had a row of small eucalypts that
were major magnets for this species and in winter there were many of them for my GBS. By unfortunate coincidence or because these trees are difficult to have in the garden these were all removed so I only get the species in passing now.......
Philip
From: Julie Clark
Sent: Friday, 12 June 2015 3:48 PM
To: COG Chatline
Subject: [canberrabirds] Fuscous Honeyeater
I saw only my second ever Fuscous Honeyeater yesterday at Mount Rogers (previous one 2 years ago in Harrison).
I note that on the COG website it says that they are a
Common breeding species.
If that is the case, where should I be going to see them? Am I just not very observant and missing them amongst all the yellow-faced honeyeaters or are they in fact
not so common anymore?
Any information would be appreciated.
--
