They used to be among the most common winter visitors to my GBS Site in Kambah in the late 1980s & 1990s. Which part inspired the text in The GBS Report (below);
There was about three homes in a row that had flowering eucalypts along the street (Everard & Hiles Place) within my area. These were all removed years ago. I don’t get Fuscous Honeyeaters in my big euc tree (different species). In recent years there has really
only been small numbers and quite possibly not even present most years (though they are easy to miss unless congregating).
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 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: David Cook [
Sent: Friday, 24 April, 2020 3:17 PM
To:
Subject: [canberrabirds] Fuscous Honeyeaters in Wamboin
We have just had a small flock of Fuscous Honeyeaters in some eucalypts in the yard, 4 in total, though there may have been more.
They were feeding on lerps in the company of travelling Yellow-faced Honeyeaters and a White-naped HE, and the resident White-eared and Brown-headed Honeyeaters, and Eastern Spinebills.
Many years since we had Fuscous HE here.
David
