Yellow Throat Turns 100! Editor YELLOW THROAT This Issue Is the 100Th Since Yellow Throat First Appeared in March 2002
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Yellow Throat turns 100! Editor YELLOW THROAT This issue is the 100th since Yellow Throat first appeared in March 2002. To mark the occasion, and to complement the ecological focus of the following article by Mike The newsletter of BirdLife Tasmania Newman, here is a historical perspective, which admittedly goes back a lot further than a branch of BirdLife Australia the newsletter, and the Number 100, July 2018 organisation! Originally described by French ornithologist General Meeting for July Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot in 1817, and Life Sciences Building, UTas, named Ptilotus Flavillus, specimens of Thursday, 12 July, 7.30 p.m. the Yellow-throated Matthew Fielding: Raven populations are enhanced by wildlife roadkill but do not Honeyeater were impact songbird assemblages. ‘collected’ by John Future land-use and climate change could supplement populations of opportunistic Gould during his visit predatory birds, such as corvids, resulting in amplified predation pressure and negative to Tasmania with his effects on populations of other avian species. Matt, a current UTas PhD candidate, will wife Elizabeth in 1838. provide an overview of his Honours study on the response of forest raven (Corvus This beautiful image tasmanicus) populations to modified landscapes and areas of high roadkill density in south- was part of the eastern Tasmania. exhibition ‘Bird Caitlan Geale: Feral cat activity at seabird colonies on Bruny Island. Woman: Elizabeth Using image analysis and modelling, Caitlin’s recent Honours project found that feral cats Gould and the birds of used the seabird colonies studied as a major food resource during the entire study period, and Australia’ at the native predators did not appear to have a large impact. This study provides important baseline Allport gallery in the monitoring data of key mammal and seabird species that will help predict how different State Library earlier species may respond to feral cat control on Bruny Island. this year. Amazing how a skilled artist can Damien Ashlin: Effects of the introduced superb lyrebird on litter loads and fire risk in make a dead specimen Tasmania’s forests. come to life in such a Damien will discuss his current Honours project on lyrebird ecology, why lyrebirds were glorious way. While the introduced to Tasmania, how their foraging behaviours may be influencing leaf-litter painting is attributed to accumulation and what this means for fire ecology in Tasmanian forests. Damien will use Henry Richter, modelling techniques to investigate lyrebird species distribution in Tasmanian and the potential for lyrebirds to influence aspects of ecosystem fire regimes. Elizabeth was an expert lithographer and worked on over 600 of Meeting venue: Life Sciences Lecture Theatre 1, Life Sciences Building, University of Ptilotus flavillus. Henry Constantine Richter. Vol. 4, Plate 35 in Tasmania, Sandy Bay. Access and parking are from College Road or from the parking the images in Gould’s John Gould, Birds of Australia (1840-48). Reproduced with kind Birds of Australia, area outside the University Centre via the pedestrian bridge over Churchill Avenue. permission of the Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts, Everyone is invited to stay for a cup of tea or coffee after the presentations. though she was only Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office. credited with 84. Sadly, 1 Elizabeth died while working on Gould’s mammoth production. According to Gould’s terrestrial birds, published in Ibis in 1965, document its regular occurrence across almost description of the yellow-throat: the full range of habitat types. This fine and conspicuous species of Ptilotus is abundant in all ravines around A series of articles by Ted Davies in Tasmanian Bird Report 35 (2003) provides Hobart Town, and is generally dispersed over the whole of Van Diemen’s Land, insight into the reason for the species’ success. His studies of foraging behaviour identify to which island I believe it to be exclusively confined. It is very animated and the Yellow-throated Honeyeater as perhaps the ultimate generalist, able to exploit a broad sprightly in its disposition, extremely quick in its form, and graceful in its range of substrates and food resources. This might seem a surprising finding given the movements. name ‘honeyeater’ suggests that the species is a specialist feeder exploiting nectar-rich The scientific name is now Nesoptilotis flavicollis, after a number of genus resources, but this is Tasmania, where the rules are broken. changes to reflect clarifications of its taxonomy. In common with other islands, Tasmania’s bird list is greatly reduced and a Back to our newsletter – the image used on the back cover dates to well before the number of species common on the adjacent continental land mass are absent. For instance, newsletter’s inception. David Milledge produced the image for the cover of the first issue there are no treecreepers and sittellas, species that forage on the trunks and branches of of the Tasmanian Bird Report in 1971, and then modified it for the second issue and cards trees. In their absence, honeyeaters have evolved to exploit these vacant niches, with produced by BOAT. It was used for the first 6 TBRs, then redrawn by Carol Johnston at Strong-billed and Black-headed Honeyeaters adapting to assume their specialist foraging the University of Tasmania in 1979, with the bird’s position being reversed. This drawing roles. The Yellow-throated Honeyeater is also adept at foraging on trunks, but as shown was first used on TBR no. 7, and we think it is the image that is still in use on both TBR by Davies it is much less specialised than the Strong-billed Honeyeater and is equally at and Yellow Throat. home foraging in the canopy and even on the ground. Over the years since it first appeared, the newsletter, thanks to the excellent work of former editors, has been a conduit for information to members and others about matters concerning the organisation, activities such as excursions and surveys, conservation issues affecting Tasmania’s birds, and a wide range of relevant, sometimes entertaining and always interesting information and experiences concerning birds. Technology has allowed the format to change over the years, and these days there is less focus on decisions and activities of committees, but what has remained is the consistently high standard of articles, snippets and photographs submitted by members and others interested in birds and their conservation. Unfortunately, what has also remained consistent are the constant threats to birds through habitat destruction, with BirdLife Tasmania dealing with many, often very complex, conservation issues every year. As editor, I welcome members’ submissions and would be happy to receive more, including letters and observations. Thanks to all former editors and to contributors past and present. In celebration of the Yellowthroat Mike Newman In reflecting on the choice of the Yellow-throated Honeyeater as the branch’s emblem and the name of its newsletter it is interesting to consider some of the characteristics of this iconic species. In addition to being charismatic, and uniquely Tasmanian, it is a remarkably resilient species. The Yellow-throated Honeyeater is one of four honeyeaters endemic to Tasmania, and by far the most frequently observed. It is the fifth-most commonly reported species in Birdata surveys, with nearly twice as many observations as any other honeyeater. Ridpath and Moreau in their foundational overview of the habitat associations of Tasmania’s Yellow-throated Honeyeater. Photo © Ian Wilson 2018 birdlifephotography.org.au 2 On the Australian mainland, many honeyeater species undertake spectacular seasonal migration bottle necks. It is easy to understand why Bass Strait could limit the distribution migrations, typified by the massive movement of Yellow-faced Honeyeaters northwards of species with this migration behaviour. Conversely, this explains why the Bass Strait is along the eastern seaboard each autumn, and returning at the end of the Austral winter. an impediment to honeyeaters leaving Tasmania in the Austral winter. Consequently, the However, Tasmania’s ten honeyeater species remain in the state throughout the year, Tasmanian honeyeaters have evolved strategies for surviving the winter within the state. It although some like the Crescent Honeyeater are altitudinal migrants. This suggests that is perhaps not surprising that endemism in Tasmania’s woodland birds peaks in the the Bass Strait acts as an impediment to honeyeater migration, a hypothesis supported by honeyeaters, with four of the ten species being endemic. the distribution of the Yellow-faced Honeyeater. This long-distance migrant is well Inspection of Birdata records not only shows that Yellow-throated Honeyeaters are distributed in the southeast of the Australian mainland, but it is exceedingly rare for one more frequently recorded than other honeyeater species across a wide range of habitats, to reach Tasmania, with just a few records from King Island and the northwest Tasmanian but that they are common in areas that other honeyeater species find marginal (e.g. the mainland. In contrast to other migrants, honeyeater movements are very obvious. They ridgetops in the South Arm peninsula and the Meehan Range). The variations in Birdata move diurnally as noisy flocks flying at low altitude. distributions also suggest the possibility that Yellow-throated Honeyeaters are less Yellow-faced Honeyeaters, the most numerous migrant honeyeater, have been well constrained by woodland connectivity than species like the Black-headed Honeyeater. studied in recent years. A Key Biodiversity Area (KBA) in NSW was nominated because However, Yellow-throated Honeyeaters, an aggressive territorial species, are deterred by of the area’s the presence of colonies of aggressive Noisy Miners. importance to their Yellow-throated Honeyeater pairs maintain their territories throughout the year, often in migration through the aggregations with other pairs. Their penetrating calls often initiate a string of responses Blue Mountains. from pairs in surrounding territories. Black-headed Honeyeaters also breed in pairs and Migration watches are excluded from Yellow-throated Honeyeaters’ territories.