147 AUSTRALIAN FIELD ORNITHOLOGY 2005. 22, !47- 15! Notes on the Behaviour of the Rufous Bristlebird Dasyomis broadbenti JOHN M. PETER Birds Australia, 415 Riversdale Road, East Hawthorn, Victoria 3123 (Email:
[email protected]) Summary Most behavioural aspects of the Rufous Bristlebird Dasyornis broadbenti, apart from its song, are poorly known. As a result of opportunistic observations between 1998 and 2000 near Aireys Inlet and Anglesea, Victoria, three different types of behaviour (courtship feeding, interspecific relations and amplification of song) of the vulnerable subspecies D. b. cwyochrous of southern Victoria are described. Introduction The Rufous Bristlebird Dasyomis broadbenti is claimed to be the best known of the three species of bristlebirds (Serventy 1982), but in fact there has been very little published on the behaviour of the species (Higgins & Peter 2002). This is presumably because of the habits of Bristlebirds: many early observers remarked that the birds were often heard but seldom seen, as their presence is usually announced by their strident calls (Belcher 1903, 1914; Hill 1903). Bristlebirds are often considered shy (Hill 1903; Campbell 1907; Purnell 1915; White 1918) and, for many observers, their only sighting of the species is of a bird, having been startled in the open, scuttling into the nearest undergrowth (e.g. Anon. 1996). Their habit of hiding in dense cover makes observation of any behaviour difficult although, when hidden in such cover, individuals can occasionally be quite confiding. The function of many displays of the Bristlebird is unknown, although most have been assumed to be related to courtship (White 1918; Sutton 1927; Lang 1946).