You know the drill if you've been on this list a while ... if not, then
please read the screed below & let me know where your Painted
Honeyeaters are & what they're up to at this time!
Lawrie Conole
Geelong, Victoria, Australia
http://yarra.vicnet.net.au/~birdsaus/painted.html
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THE PAINTED HONEYEATER (GRANTIELLA PICTA). A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION.
The Painted Honeyeater (Grantiella picta), an unusual and attractive
member of the family Meliphagidae, is an uncommon to rare migrant or
nomad in forests and woodlands of the eastern part of mainland
Australia. Although apparently a relatively rare visitor to the Gulf
country of the Northern Territory and the east of South Australia, it is
better known from the inland slopes and plains of the Murray-Darling
Basin in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria (where most birders
live). Like only one other Australian bird, the Mistletoebird (Dicaeum
hirundinaceum) (or perhaps two if the Grey Honeyeater [Conopophila
whitei] were better known), the Painted Honeyeater preferentially feeds
on mistletoe berries.
It is apparently further specialised on particular species of Amyema
mistletoe. Species typically utilised in south-eastern Australia are
Drooping Mistletoe (Amyema pendulum) and Box Mistletoe (A. miquelii)
which grow mostly on gum and stringybark, and peppermint, ironbark and
box eucalypts respectively; Grey Mistletoe (A. quandang) on wattles
(Acacia), and other species such as Wire-leaf Mistletoe (A. preissii) on
wattles, and Sheoak Mistletoe (A. cambagei) on Casuarina. Painted
Honeyeaters have also been seen feeding on nectar of flowering
mistletoes and Eucalyptus, and on insects.
With a few notable exceptions, amazingly little of substance has been
published about the biology of this widespread honeyeater, and plates in
modern, major Australian bird books do not accurately represent its
sexual dimorphism in plumage and size. Much of what is written about
the bird spring-summer movements, habitat usage, diet and breeding is
for south-eastern Australia. Virtually nothing is available on where
Painted Honeyeaters spend autumn-winter (probably the Gulf of
Carpentaria drainage area), and their biology during that period. Many
of the texts offer little more than John Gould wrote in the
mid-nineteenth century! Stephen Garnett categorised the Painted
Honeyeater as rare in "The Action Plan for Australian Birds"
(ANPWS/RAOU, 1992), and other writers have speculated that the bird has
become rarer in the last 20-30 years in Victoria and New South Wales.
Many of the sites that it occupies in south-eastern Australia are
isolated and degraded woodland remnants with little or no management for
conservation values. Little is known of the impact of grazing and land
clearing, and the possible accompanying impact of aggressively
territorial birds such as the Noisy Miner (Manorina melanocephala) and
Yellow-throated Miner (M. flavigula) on Painted Honeyeaters throughout
their range.
I'm working on a review of the ecology and conservation of the Painted
Honeyeater, to include new paintings (by Michael Conole) of adult and
juvenile plumages. I am interested in incorporating suitable
unpublished information, which would be fully acknow ledged. The areas
from which information is particularly lacking are the wintering sites
in western Queensland and the eastern Northern Territory (probably also
north-eastern South Australia), but information from south-eastern
Australia is most welcome too. I would be pleased to receive Painted
Honeyeater information from you on any or all of the following:
(i) location (as precise as possible),
(ii) land tenure (freehold, Crown, lease, etc.), habitat block size and
connectedness (size in hectares, corridors to other blocks, etc.),
(iii) land use (grazing, cropping, firewood removal, conservation
reserve, etc.),
(iv) dates of Painted Honeyeater arrival and departure,
(v) are Painted Honeyeaters regular or irregular visitors, or vagrants
at this site,
(vi) how many Painted Honeyeaters visit this site,
(vii) what are the main habitat types used by Painted Honeyeaters on
this site (woodland, forest, shrubland, mallee, etc.),
(viii) what are the main tree and mistletoe species,
(ix) how would you describe the average mistletoe load on the trees
(heavy, moderate, light; or actual numbers of clumps on a sample of
trees),
(x) descriptions of Painted Honeyeater foraging, and food item
identifications,
(xi) any Painted Honeyeater breeding attempts and outcomes (number of
young raised by pairs of birds; the nest and eggs are well known, I'm
interested in reproductive success and failure),
(xii) Painted Honeyeater display behaviour,
(xiii) Painted Honeyeater call repertoire (recordings, written
descriptions),
(xiv) interactions with other birds,
(xv) other notes on Painted Honeyeaters.
Information & data sheets are available from
Lawrie Conole, 2/45 Virginia Street, NEWTOWN 3220, VICTORIA
Phone AH (03) 5229 4037; Mobile (0419) 588 993; Fax (03) 9663 3669.
E-mail <>
Send information to the same address.
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