Author: admin

Last year a pair of white cheeked honeyeaters (Phylidonyris niger) nested in the deep cover provided by the straplike leaves of the Lomandra clumps in our backyard at #56.

They’re back again this year in the same place.

We’ve avoided the nest site but from our back deck they can be seen coming and going busily now in early May.

White-cheeked Honeyeaters pair monogamously for the breeding season, with males defending breeding territories that can be held for several years. Males aggressively attack other birds of their own and other species during the breeding season, but not familiar birds such as their own mates, relatives and resident neighbours.

The female builds a cup-shaped nest from twigs, bark, and other plant materials, lined with pieces of flowers (e.g. Banksias, Isopogons).

And as the beak of the nest-building in our photo indicates the nest is kept together with spider web.

The nest is well-concealed in dense foliage or in grass (like Lomandra) below shrubs and ferns or placed low in forked branches of trees or shrubs, often close to the ground. Both parents feed young.

The White-cheeked Honeyeater is endemic to eastern and south-western Australia, ranging from east of the Great Divide in Queensland through coastal New South Wales, becoming scattered south to Jervis Bay. Also in south-western Western Australia and from Perth northwards to Murchison River.

The populations in the east and west are quite unconnected.

The white-cheeked honeyeater looks very similar to the New Holland Honeyeater which can be distinguished by its white eye.

Photos by Peter Cooke and text mostly from Birds in Backyards site.

The e-Bird website describes the Pale-Yellow Robin as “a rotund little robin, olive above, with gray head, yellow underparts, and white around the base of the bill”. 

Our picture illustrates its common feeding behaviour: “Perching on low branches and on the side of tree trunks, from which it drops to the ground to capture prey”— in this case a nice fat worm on the gravel near the Village Green toilets..

Pale-Yellow Robins are very similar in appearance to Eastern Yellow Robins but Pale-yellows are smaller than Eastern Yellows (12 cm in length as opposed to 15) and have morewhite around the beak and throat. The Eastern Yellows have black legs, more vibrant yellow plumage and a longer tail. 

There are two sub-species of Pale-Yellow Robin. The nominate and southern race is Tregellasia capito and the northern race is distinguished by addition of a sub-species name nana — latin for dwarf. 

The northern sub-species is found from near Cooktown to Paluma and the southern ones are found between Barrington Tops in NSW to the Mary River in Queensland. 

Pale yellow Robins are sedentary and favour rainforests and dense eucalypt forests, particularly where lawyer vine is found. 

They use the prickly lawyer vine (Calamus muelleri) as nesting material and as a nest site. The nest may be anywhere up to 10 m above the ground, though often much lower. Breeding season is July to December with one, or sometimes two, broods. A clutch of 2 oval eggs, measuring 20 by 15 millimetres (0.79 in × 0.59 in), is laid. They are pale green, splotched with brownish marks. 

Smith Crescent has a great variety of rainforest species, some regulars and others occasional. Jan Cooke saw a Yellow Breasted Boat bill there last week and a few years back a Rhodesian birder got good shots of a Paradise Kingfisher well above its usual altitude. .

Photograph by Peter Cooke.
Text assembled by PC from various plagiarised sources.