Sept 12 was an interesting day here at Cassowary House, Kuranda, far
North Queensland, clear and sunny and with two species within 20
minutes that i had not seen here at the house area before: an
Australian Hobby ( a good grip back too as my wife Sue saw it here
last week!), then a Brown Honeyeater at the flowering Callistemon.
That afternoon I was walking one of our dogs out by the parking
area, and noticed a male Victoria's Riflebird low down on a vine
about 20 cm from the forest floor. He was poking at the pink trumpet-
shaped pale lipped bell-like vine flower clusters, (I believe the
species is a native, I'll try to identify it anon). Anyway, he kept
poking low at the base of the flowers and was clearly pushing the
bill in, presumably to drink nectar. He then moved to another clump
about 1.5 m off the ground and repeated the procedure, poking into
the base from outside and looking just like a giant honeyeater.
I went and checked and found that the base of each flower had a
puncture mark and had then split longitudinally a couple of cm as the
bird poked in to reach the nectaries. He had punctured some seven
flowers in total and there was no obvious insect to get at, so nectar
drinking is the obvious inference.
Flower piercing is well-known amongst some South American passerines
(and Eastern Spinebill) but seldom reported elsewhere, and I can find
no record of this behaviour for this species on a quick search. This
species is known to visit the bracts of pandanus (Freycinetia spp.)
and eat the flowers as well as the fruit, and has been recorded
visiting Syzygyium cormiflorum, per Beehler and Frith (1998) The
Birds of Paradise (OUP).
Phil Gregory
www.cassowary-house.com.au
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