OUR little island is home to a subspecies of Australia’s largest honey eater, but it is now classified as endangered.
Lack of suitable habitat is the main reason for low numbers along with vegetation destruction, which is an ongoing problem on King Island.
The bird is the Yellow Wattlebird, noting that the male and female are similar in appearance with the female being slightly smaller.
Both have long pendulous yellow wattles (skin flaps) which hang from a point below and behind both eyes. White streaks above and below the eye are noticeable.
The crown has white and brown feathers running over the back of his neck where they meet the brown, white-edged back feathers.
The belly is pale to bright yellow with flecks of brown streaks.
The tail is long and slender with white tips, as are the wing feathers, the legs a pinkish colour and the short, curved bill is black. Juveniles are a plain greyish-brown colour, darker above and lighter below.
The bird was observed by Archibald Campbell, in the November 1887 Victorian Field Naturalists’ Expedition, along with Green and McGarvie in 1971.
They noted it was mostly to be found in eucalypt forests. Over the last 50 years, these forests have continued to decline, often due to illegal practices.
The voice of the Yellow Wattlebird is quite distinctive and is often heard while the bird goes unobserved in the dense canopy. It is described in various ways including loud guttural gurgles, croaks like coughing or vomiting or a raucous kuk, kukuk noise. This is very different to most Australian songbirds who have a pleasant melodic voice.
The Yellow Wattlebird feeds mainly on the nectar of eucalyptus and banksias. It also eats fruit and insects and forages under bark at all levels of the canopy, from the top of trees to near ground level. It is known to visit gardens and orchards to feed on introduced fruits and flowers on an opportunistic basis and occasionally will forage on the ground.
Their habitat is generally dense scrub with a mixture of species which includes gum and banksia. When building nests, the birds usually choose a place high in a tree. The nest consists of a large untidy lot of twigs, bark and leaves woven into a cup shape lined with feathers and fine grasses. Two to three eggs are laid during the breeding season from late August through to January. Incubation is about twenty days, and the chicks are naked when they hatch. Both males and females help with parenting duties.
The Yellow Wattlebird will defend its territory ruthlessly and noisily chase away any unwanted birds who may be a threat. At Nugara, in 2015, I watched a Yellow Wattlebird dash out of the scrub and latch onto the tail of a Forest Raven that flew too close. This may have happened more than once as the Forest Raven had a lot of very tatty tail feathers.
The Yellow Wattlebird loves to bathe, especially in warmer weather. On a balmy summer afternoon many years ago, I watched a Yellow Wattlebird bathing in a cattle trough, near Currie. The bird dived right under the water, then flew to a nearby fence post, lightly preened the feathers then back and into the water again. He did this several times and while saturated flew off. I expect he was going to give himself a good preen and dry out his feathers.
To me, the longevity of this species and many like it is down to us – reduce habitat destruction.