Hi,
This is the text on the species from The GBS Report. Although this is now 20 years old and the book is well overdue to be updated and reissued. I will admit
that the comment about “become the most obvious bird around” was based mainly on the situation at my site at the time. The species would appear to be far less common now.
Philip
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 flocks
of Yellow-faced and White-naped Honeyeaters in their April migration. This species shows a typical altitudinal migrant 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 lack of GBS breeding records until Year 21 is notable, being only an observation of two dependent young at Site 203 (which 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: Canberrabirds [
On Behalf Of tlann rail via Canberrabirds
Sent: Monday, 11 August, 2025 9:33 PM
To: CanberraBirds email list
Subject: [Canberrabirds] Fuscous honeyeaters
Hi there,
Not sure whether Fuscous honeyeaters are on the COG report list. We photographed some in Higgins yesterday. ID’d on NatureMapr. Sound a lot like Noisies, don’t they?
