Whilst guiding last week we were watching a borrow pit near Lake Mitchell north of Mareeba waiting to observe visiting species. A male Mistleote Bird flew in to the edge of the water with a White-throated Honeyeater. The former was very tenative in all it’s movements. After some minutes it landed on a twig above the water and needed to stretch vertically to reach the water. It “sipped” the surface seven times seemingly only barely touching the water. Then it flew off. In over half a century of observing this is my first record of a Mistletoe Bird coming to drink. Have any other observers experienced the same behavior?
Del. Richards, Fine Feather Tours, Mossman, NQ.
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When we were in Hart’s Range (215km NE of Alice Springs), we had a male Mistletoebird fly into our sprinkler during an assembly at school (causing all sorts of excitement as I am sure you could gather) and sit there for a long time, perhaps five minutes, until I became concerned. It let me catch him with my hands and was passive as I put it in a box for some quiet time in the air-conditioned office. I thought it might be on a downward spiral, but once it dried off, it regained some of its spunk and flew off, once released, to a nearby perch before departing–seemed fine! The day wasn’t super hot (low-mid thirties, rather than forties).
Cheers
Stuart
Dr Stuart Cooney Melbourne Resource Manager / Senior Zoologist M 0448 496 000 E scooney@ehpartners.com.au
Natural and Cultural Heritage Consultants MELBOURNE GEELONG 420 Victoria St, Brunswick VIC 3056 PO Box 8048, Newtown VIC 3220 PH (03) 9940 1411 F (03) 9381 0700 PH (03) 5221 8122 F (03) 5221 2760
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