birding-aus

painted honeyeaters

To: "'John Leonard'" <>, <>
Subject: painted honeyeaters
From: "Lawrie Conole" <>
Date: Tue, 29 Oct 2002 09:35:56 +1100
John Leonard wrote:

>In the last couple of years we seem to be getting more and 
>more reports of 
>Painted Honeyeaters. Is this because:
>
>1. There are more PHs around (numbers increasing)
>2. People are getting better at finding them
>3. Droughts years pushing them further east and south (there 
>have been two 
>separate reports of them in the ACT in the past 24 hours)
>
>Or is it a combination of the above?

Hi John

I think point (1) is unlikely to be the case.  This bird is
intrinsically rare and probably declining (see national bird action plan
for a summary).

Point (2) probably has some merit, though in Spring one would have to be
blind/deaf to overlook displaying Painted Honeyeaters!!!

Point (3) is the winner I guess.  The pattern of occurrence of this bird
is confusing to say the least.  They occur at various traditional
spring/summer sites inside and outside the Great Divide in southeastern
Australia with great regularity, but then turn up at various peripheral
sites in odd years - often more than once but widely separated by years
or decades.  Drought may be the answer, but then a sophisticated
analysis of where the drought is acting on a fine-grained scale would be
necessary to identify its effects.  Ultimately they need access to a
decent crop of mistletoe berries (genus Amyema), though they can do the
normal honeyeater things too (blossom, insects).

L.

=================================
Lawrie Conole
Senior Ecologist
 
Ecology Australia Pty. Ltd.
Flora and Fauna Consultants
88B Station Street
FAIRFIELD VIC 3078 Australia
E-mail: 
Internet: http://www.ecologyaustralia.com.au/
Ph: (03) 9489 4191; Mob: (0419) 588 993
Fax: (03) 9481 7679
ABN 83 006 757 142

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