One of the first rainforest birds I encountered when I first visited Paluma in the mid 70’s was the ubiquitous Lewin’s honeyeater (Meliphaga lewinii). One was picking up crumbs from my scone at the Ivy cottage, while others were foraging in a bottle brush for insects or nectar from the flowers. At that stage I was confident in my identification, armed with a first edition of Slater’s Field Guide and assurances that no other similar species existed this high up on the range.

Virtually any bird-feeder in the village with fruit or other food on offer will attract these friendly and distinctive birds. The soft olive upper plumage, streaky breast and prominent yellow ear patch easily mark them out from the white-cheeked an Macleays honeyeaters that also do the rounds on village feeders. However, for dedicated birdwatchers keen to build an accurate list of bird species they have seen, life is not so straightforward. It turns out that there are two other species of yellow-eared honeyeaters that look almost identical. In some areas they don’t overlap with Lewin’s since they prefer low altitudes, but in Paluma the slightly smaller Yellow-spotted honey eater (Meliphaga notata) is recorded as a fairly common resident, while the even smaller Cryptic Honeyeater, Microptilotis imitatrix, (previously considered to be the Graceful Honeyeater M. gracilis) is an occasional visitor. While there are small but generally reliable differences in size between these species, and local but variable differences in plumage, some experts consider it impossible to distinguish between these species with 100% accuracy based only on field observations. Luckily their calls are very different. Lewin’s main call is a rapid monotonic staccato; the Yellow-spotted has a less rapid repeated call with varied pitch, while the Cryptic has a totally different non repeating call. Check out the calls recorded by Andree Griffin in Paluma many years ago to see if you recognise any of them. Lewins call should be very familiar. Based on these calls I know for certain that many of the birds at my feeder are Lewins, but while I have definitely heard the Yellow-spotted while out on walks I have never actually seen it call so I am reluctant to record this species on my life list.

Lewin’s Honeyeater is named after John Lewin and the path to this bird’s current name is somewhat twisted. Lewin was an English-born natural history artist. He arrived in Australia in 1800 but despite his artistic skills, his books were not sufficiently popular to provide a livelihood for him and his family. However the then Governor of NSW (Macquarie), recognizing his potential to contribute to the colony, appointed him to the position of  city coroner in order to provide a guaranteed income. His first book on birds (Birds of New Holland, 1808) included a new genus proposed by him: Meliphaga, derived from the ancient greek words meli (honey) and phagos (eating). This genus later lent its name to the entire family of Honeyeaters (Meliphagidae) which contains 174 species and 44 genera. The 1808 book included an illustraion and description of Meliphaga chrysotis (now M. lewinii) but in a later taxonomic revision in 1837, it was given a new name and genus which honoured Lewin’s contributon to Australian ornithology: Ptilotis lewinii. Finally, a later taxonomic review decided that it really belonged back in the genus Meliphaga and we arrive at its present name of Meliphaga lewinii.

Lewin later published a book concentrating on birds of the colony (Natural History of Birds of NSW, 1813). This was the first illustrated book published in Australia, and is now  among the rarest Australian books. A third edition of this book (1822) can be yours for only $75,000 – A bit more than the wage of a humble city coroner in the 1800’s! First editions are considered unprocurable at any price.

Text and photos (unless indicated) by Jamie Oliver

Over the wet season at Paluma a cohort of male Victoria’s Rifle Birds went through big changes in appearance and behaviour.

Until they are four or five years old the male rifle birds are almost indistinguishable from the females of the species with elegant but muted plumage in various shades of brown, buff and cream. The change to fully male appearance and behaviour may not be fully complete until their sixth year.

The changes here took place over a few months as the young males replaced their demure female plumage until becoming fully fledged males clad in velvety black with iridescent neon blue caps and throats with a layered “skirt” in a colour that’s a bit hard to call.

As the change approaches male birds still in female plumage begin practicing their display routines, marked by a progression of vocalisations, postures and movements performed usually atop a broken off vertical tree or tree fern.

The first stage is to call from the display perch and expose their yellow gape to attract attention.  Victoria riflebirds make a sound like “yass,” and once a female arrives at the display site, the second stage involves the male turning to face the female, raising his wings above his head to form a circle, again exposing his gape, and raising and lowering his body on his legs. If a female approaches, the male begins the third display stage directly in front of the female described as an “alternate wing clap”, lowering one wing and hiding his head behind the other and then switching from side to side in quick succession.

If the courtship reaches a mutually agreeable conclusion it is left to the female to undertake all nest construction, incubation and feeding of the nestlings, usually two in number. Incubation lasts 18 or 19 days and then the young are fed by the female for a couple of weeks. The nestlings become fully independent of mum after about 10 weeks.

But the subject of this post is the progression of the change to adult male plumage, with a number of individuals photographed over a period from early January until early March on our back deck next to the Rainforest Track (Soon to be named the Hyland Track). By March it seemed all the cohort had completed the change.

Here’s a selection from the fascinating passing parade since late December. Click on any photo to see a larger version.

The transformation of this cohort seemed complete by late March. The Australian Museum says the breeding season runs from August to February but before then you can still expect to see plenty of practice displays.

When showtime arrives, we can expect displays including these poses below, photographed on 28 March.  

Text and Photos by Peter Cooke

Some further facts from Jamie Oliver: 

Our rifle bird in Paluma is one of just  three species in Australia, but it’s a member of a rich and fascinating family of “birds of paradise” (Paradisaeidae) which is comprised of 45 species in 17 genera.

Outside Australia they are only found in PNG and eastern Indonesia. Most of the overseas species are confined to rainforests and they are even more spectacular in their plumage and their displays which serve show off that splendour to prospective mates.

A “fascinating factoid” about birds of paradise is how they got their name. Reference to paradise in their name originates from a mis-interpretation of preserved specimens – Wikipedia states:

This species was described from specimens brought back to Europe from trading expeditions in the early sixteenth century. These specimens had been prepared by native traders by removing their wings and feet so that they could be used as decorations. This was not known to the explorers, and in the absence of information, many beliefs arose about them. They were briefly thought to be the mythical phoenix. The often footless and wingless condition of the skins led to the belief that the birds never landed but were kept permanently aloft by their plumes. The first Europeans to encounter their skins were the voyagers in Ferdinand Magellan‘s circumnavigation of the Earth. Antonio Pigafetta wrote that “The people told us that those birds came from the terrestrial paradise, and they call them bolon diuata, that is to say, ‘birds of God’.” This is the origin of both the name “bird of paradise” and the specific name apoda – without feet.

Wikipedia – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird-of-paradise

Footnote from PC: Wiki uses the language of colonisation and empire to tell us that the Victoria’s riflebird was “discovered” (my quote marks) by John Macgillivray for John Gould in 1848 and is named after Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. The common name “riflebird” comes from the likeness of their black velvety plumage to the uniform of the British Army Rifle Brigade.

So far haven’t been able to source any indigenous knowledge from the original discoverers of the VRB.

Over the wet season two species of mistletoe (Amylotheca subumbellata and Amylotheca dictyophleba) have been flowering and fruiting in the village.

This is a window of seasonal plenty for Mistletoe Birds (Dicaeum hirundinaceum) who live mainly on the mistletoe fruit and repay the favour by spreading the seeds of mistletoe.

The photo here of a female mistletoe bird was taken from the back deck of #56 at the start of the rainforest walk in mid-February. It wasn’t until the photo was uploaded and cropped that it became apparent the shot had captured a gluey seed locked and loaded for dispersal.

Although there are other birds that can spread mistletoe, the mistletoe bird has evolved a highly specialised and efficient method of ensuring future crops of mistletoe berries.

As a parasite, mistletoe seed needs to be placed in a particular way in the (usually) upper branches of the host tree. Mistletoe minimizes opportunistic feeding by less specialist dispersal species by producing few, inconspicuous fruits. The fruit is low in protein and so the mistletoe bird must eat large quantities for reproduction and moulting.

The mistletoe bird has evolved a digestive system that processes the fruit particularly quickly and with little damage to the seed. It takes between four and 25 minutes for the fruit to be processed and ready for “planting”.

The fruit emerges with a sticky coating that requires the bird to employ a special technique to detach it from the anal vent. Mistletoe birds often stand facing the host plant and with a wiping action deposits the fruit in a string along the perch. Seeds that emerge from mistletoe birds are much stickier than those of honeyeaters who also snack on mistletoe fruit. Seeds ejected by honeyeaters fall randomly and often miss the strong bonding to the host tree branch that is essential to keep the mistletoe supplied with a source of fluid as it grows.

Mistletoe birds occur throughout Australia in any habitat where mistletoe occurs. They are the only Australian representative of the flowerpecker family, Dicaeidae, which comprises 50 mistletoe-loving species distributed through tropical southern Asia and Australasia.

The male mistletoe bird is brightly and colourfully feathered while the female has more demure plumage, dark grey above with a white throat, light grey underparts and just a touch of pinkish red under the tail.

Jamie Oliver previously posted a link to a great David Attenborough segment that captured the whole process including a time-lapse of seed germination. That link is here.

In early March a number of mistletoes were flowering nicely in “the cutting” around 21-27 Mt Spec Road.

Text by Peter Cooke

Note: no AI used in producing this post, just good old cut and paste plagiarism from various sources.

Nearly six years ago, in a rush of enthusiasm, I published what I hoped would be the first in a monthly series of articles on Paluma Birds. That post featured the Satin Bowerbird. Unfortunately, I never followed up with further articles, despite my feeling that this was a worthwhile project that could be a nice complement to Colwyn Campbell’s very successful Tree of the Month series, which persisted right up to the end of 2021.

I am delighted that the series is now restarting with the able support of Peter Cooke, whose first post features the mistletoe bird. Peter and I have several birds lined up for future months and are confident we will be able to keep the series going at least for this year. However, we would be delighted to receive contributions from other residents. If you have a well-framed, sharp portrait of a local bird that you would like to write about please contact us. We can help you write the text, or contribute some text to go with your picture. In either case, let us know! We are very keen to use photos by residents as our primary source of illustrations for the series. if you realize you have a great shot of one of the birds we feature in a post, and would like to share it, I can include it in a comment on that post after it’s published (unfortunately the system does not allow general users to include photos in the comments section).

I hope you find the series informative and interesting.

Jamie Oliver