Red wattlebird

Appearance

The sexes of the red wattlebird are similar in size and plumage, the length of the adult male ranging from 33 to 37 cm and adult female 34 to 37 cm.

With an average weight of 100–120 g, the red wattlebird is one of the largest nectar-feeding birds in the world, and second largest species of honeyeater native to Australia, eclipsed only by the yellow wattlebird.

The crown, forehead and upper lores are dark brown, streaked with pale brown at the front of the crown and white at the rear of the crown. The nape is slightly paler brown, with white streaks. A whitish triangular marking covers the lower lores and anterior ear covert feathers, bordered below by a dark brown stripe from the lower mandible down to the wattle and around to behind the eye.

The throat is dark brown streaked with white. The iris of the eye is orange-red to crimson. The distinctive pinkish-red wattles dangle from the lower rear corner of the ear coverts on either side of the neck, and there is a sliver of pink bare skin at the lower border of the white patch on the face.

The chest and belly are streaked white, and there is a bright yellow patch towards the tail. The strong legs and feet are pink or pinkish-brown and the downward-curving bill is black. The average length of the bill is around 23.5 mm, and 6.7 mm wide and 6.8 mm high at its base.

The gape is grey-black, while the inside of the mouth is orange. In common with other honeyeaters, the red wattlebird has a long specialized tongue to extract nectar from flowers. The tongue can extend well beyond the tip of the bill and is divided at the end to form a brush-like structure with over a hundred bristles that soak up nectar by capillary action.

The red wattlebird begins moulting after the breeding season, starting with the primary flight feathers in November or December and finishing between the following March and May. The feathers of the breast, back, median and lesser covert feathers are moulted before those of the crown, remiges and retrices.

Immature red wattlebirds are generally less flamboyant. Juveniles have much less prominent wattles, brown irises, a pale crown and much less yellow on the belly. They moult into first immature plumage within a few months of leaving the nest. First immature birds are more similar to adults overall, having red irises with brown rings, wattles larger but still smaller than adults, and a greyish pink gape.

The red wattlebird is hard to confuse with any other species, though in poor visibility might be mistaken for the spiny-cheeked honeyeater, or little or western wattlebirds.

Naming

John White described the red wattlebird in 1790; three subspecies are recognized.

Distribution

The red wattlebird is found in southeast Queensland, where it occurs south of Noosa and Cooloola, becoming more common south of Brisbane and Toowoomba.

Further south into New South Wales it is found most places east of the Great Dividing Range and stretching west to the southern North-West Plain, Central Western Slopes and eastern Riverina, and is an occasional visitor to points along the Murray River valley.

It is found across Victoria, though is uncommon in the northwest of the state. In South Australia, Devonborough Downs Station, Manunda, Wilpena Pound and Nullarbor Station mark the northern limits of its range. There are scattered records from the Nullarbor Plain, but the species is common in Western Australia west of 125 °E and south of 29 °S. The yellow wattlebird replaces it in Tasmania.

The red wattlebird has become more common in some localities, such as the Sunraysia district in the 1960s and Nambucca Heads and Lefevre Peninsula in the 1980s. Numbers breeding have increased in Sydney and Adelaide. The red wattlebird is a rare vagrant to New Zealand, with confirmed records at Matakana in 1865 and Rohutu, Taranaki in 1885, and a third unconfirmed from Motupiko in 1938.

Behavior

A loud and active bird, the red wattlebird is found in pairs, in a small family group, or alone during the breeding season, and gathers in larger groups of up to several hundred birds over winter.

It flies straight or with a slightly undulating pattern, alternating between gliding and flapping its wings with quick shallow beats, at or slightly above the level of the tree canopy. The red wattlebird moves on the ground by hopping, cocking its tail upwards slightly.

Aggressive and territorial, the red wattlebird defends its nest and sources of food against other birds. It either calls at, snaps at the tails of, or flies at other birds, sometimes scuffling with members of the same species or other large honeyeaters in the air.

"Displacement" is a dominant display in which a red wattlebird will land on a perch that has been immediately vacated by another bird. A smaller red wattlebird adopts a horizontal "appeasement posture" side-on to the aggressor in which it lowers its head, flutters its wings and edges closer to the other bird.

As well as smaller bird species, red wattlebirds can mob and chase larger species such as the Australian magpie, butcherbirds and currawongs, the black-faced cuckooshrike, the olive-backed oriole, crows and ravens, the laughing kookaburra and even small raptors like the collared sparrowhawk.

Habitat

Open sclerophyll forest and woodland, generally dominated by eucalypts, is the most common habitat of the species. It is more common in forests with ample shrubby or grassy understory.

It is less commonly encountered in shrubland, heath, or margins of wet sclerophyll forest. It is rarely found in mature pine plantations. Within urban areas, it is abundant in parks and reserves, gardens and golf courses, as well as orchards and vineyards.

It occasionally ventures into subtropical, semi-arid or subalpine regions, and has been found up to 1,900 m above sea level. The red wattlebird is rarer in forests that have been affected by dieback.

Reproduction

The red wattlebird breeds throughout its range, with nesting taking place between July and December, though occasionally outside these months if conditions are favourable. One or two broods are laid each year.

Birds generally nest as solitary pairs. The nest is a cup-shaped structure formed from sticks and leaves lined with bark, grass and hair, between 2 and 16 metres above ground, usually in the forked branches of a tree—generally a eucalypt.

The nest is generally centrally located rather than in the periphery of the tree. A study in Eastwood State Forest near Armidale in New South Wales found that red wattlebirds preferred to nest in manna gum and apple box.

A clutch of two or three pale brown- and lavender-spotted pinkish eggs are normally laid. They measure 33 mm × 22 mm and are a tapered oval in shape. The eggs are normally incubated by both parents, but sometimes just by the female.

They hatch after 16–21 days. The chicks are born almost naked with a small amount of grey down on their head and body. They are mostly brooded by the female but sometimes the male will also do so. The nestlings are fed by both parents, and occasionally immature birds will also contribute.

Their eyes open at around 7 days. They fledge 15–20 days after hatching and both parents continue to feed them for a further 2–3 weeks. Young are given manna and insects such as beetles, bugs and flies.

Food

The red wattlebird is predominantly a nectar-feeder, foraging mostly in trees, in particular climbing along branches and at flower heads, and probing flowers with its bill.

Predators

The nests of red wattlebirds are often parasitized by the pallid cuckoo, and less commonly by the Pacific koel. Nest predators include the brown goshawk, black falcon, pied currawong, Australian raven, common brushtail possum, domestic cat, and snakes.

"Isospora anthochaerae" is an Apicomplexan parasite that has been isolated from the red wattlebird in Western Australia, from oocytes collected from faecal samples. Species of bird louse that have been recorded on the red wattlebird include "Menacanthus eurysternus" and members of the genera "Brueelia", "Myrsidea" and "Philopterus".