That is great to know. It is consistent also with the text of my Canberra book
as below (relevant bits in bold). Even with few breeding records I commented on
that. Extract from page 72-73.
New Holland Honeyeater Phylidonyris novaehollandiae
This species shows the least regular pattern of all the honeyeaters but that
may be related to sampling problems. It has its greatest population density in
coastal heaths where it can be superabundant. It is very active, sociable and
noisy and unlikely to be missed. Locally populations are found at the
Australian National Botanic Gardens, where diverse plantings of Grevillea and
other natives provide constant food sources. It also occurs along the
Murrumbidgee River Corridor and other sites, where there are large stands of
suitable shrubs. This species can survive as individuals for some time and even
breed as isolated pairs in the suburbs and there are many such records.
However, it is the occurrence of large groups that contribute the greater part
to the measured abundance. In our region it appears to show two patterns that
are superimposed. It has the winter peak and summer minimum of most small
honeyeaters but on top of that it has a marked late summer to autumn peak as
well. There is even the impression from some sites where they are recorded
regularly that there is a gap in their occurrence between the winter and summer
peaks. This results in the odd arrangement of lows during spring and autumn
having similar mid-range abundance to summer. Abundance has varied widely. It
is reasonable to believe there is some real effect in this as the populations
of these birds naturally fluctuate according to nectar availability.
Interpreting GBS data is complicated by the changing distributions of both the
sites surveyed and the locations of colonies of this species affecting numbers
observed, for this species apparently rather more than most. The summer peak
was greatest in those years that had one or several sites at the Australian
National University (Acton) that is near to the Australian National Botanic
Gardens and so is influenced by that large population.
All three breeding records include activities with young in the nest and
dependent young. The duration 5 to 7 weeks is consistent but the timing of
these events is diverse. In late November to December in Year 4 and late
February to mid April in Year 5 at Site 105 and mid August to mid September in
Year 16 at Site 152.
Graphs on page: 99, Rank: 75, Breeding Rank: 67, A = 0.04606, F = 11.71%, W =
28.7, R = 1.845%, G = 2.50.
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