153 AUSTRALIAN Field Ornithology 2010, 27, 153–158 Some Notes on the Black Sugomel niger in , with Special Reference to Feeding on Ash

MICHAEL G. BROOKER1 and BELINDA M. CALE2 1P.O. Box 518, Kalamunda, Western Australia 6926 (Email: [email protected]) 221 Derrick Street, Berri, 5343

Summary We describe observations of Black Sugomel niger from seven study sites in Western Australia. Black Honeyeaters were observed mainly in spring, and they occurred in five of 13 years in the Central Wheatbelt region. The pattern of occurrence tended to be in two consecutive years and sometimes at the same time as observations of the species in eastern Australia. We observed breeding females eating ash, and making repeated visits to a campfire. We suggest that this behaviour is linked to their need to build up or replace the calcium content of the medullary bone, which supplies this element during production of eggshell. The ingestion of ash by Black Honeyeaters parallels observations on breeding in the Americas, and may be more common in other small Australian meliphagids than has been reported. Why this feature of the biology of Black Honeyeaters does not seem to have been recorded before the 1980s is discussed.

Introduction Among Australia’s 74 species of Meliphagidae, Black Honeyeaters Sugomel niger have a number of interesting traits in which they differ from most other members of the family. These include: (a) being strongly sexually dimorphic, (b) being among the smallest, (c) having relatively long, pointed wings (Keast 1968), (d) having one of the largest geographical distributions, covering most of the arid zone, (e) being nomadic (‘ultra’ according to Keast 1968, but see Ford 1978) and (f) exhibiting the unusual, rarely reported and at times spectacular behaviour of eating ash. Here we describe our observations on the species in Western Australia relating to two of these features: intermittent occurrence, and eating ash.

Observations

Irruptions The patterns of movements of Black Honeyeaters within the arid zone are not well understood (Higgins et al. 2001) and, for Western Australia, these honeyeaters are described as nomadic or irregularly migratory by Johnstone & Storr (2004). From time to time, they irrupt into the more mesic areas surrounding the arid and semi-arid zones. One of the first reported intrusions by this species in Western Australia was recorded by John Gilbert, who collected specimens at Gwambygine (10 km south of York) on 10 November 1839 (Fisher 2008). It is likely that, at the time, the area was having a good season because the Swan River, which runs through York, flooded in Perth in the winter of 1839 (Cameron 2006). The frequency of irruptions by the species can be estimated from observations for a given area over a number of consecutive years. Our records, for seven sites in Western Australian, are shown in Table 1. AUSTRALIAN 154 BROOKER & CALE Field Ornithology

Table 1 Records of Black Honeyeaters at seven study sites in Western Australia that were visited for 3 or more consecutive years. The number of observers was two for all sites except Callagiddy and Rawlinna with three–four observers and Whiteman Park with one. Season was all year round, except * = winter–spring, and ** = spring–early summer. Location Region Co-ordinates Duration Period Present

Callagiddy gascoyne 25°03′S, 114°01′E 5 years 1969–73 No records Monkey Mia** Shark Bay 25°48′S, 113°42′E 6 years 1985–87 No records 1994–96 No records Woolgorong* Murchison 27°45′S, 115°42′E 11 years 1988–98 1995, 1996 Rawlinna Nullarbor Plain 30°44′S, 125°17′E 5 years 1969–73 1973 Capillosa Central 31°12′S, 118°46′E 7 years 2003–09 2008, 2009 Wheatbelt Wyalkatchem** Central 31°16′S, 117°36′E 6 years 1993–98 1995, 1996, 1998 Wheatbelt Whiteman Perth 31°49′S, 115°56′E 20 years 1990–2009 2009 Park

Feeding on ash We observed Black Honeyeaters eating ash at two of our study areas: Woolgorong Station, in the Murchison; and Capillosa, in the eastern Central Wheatbelt. Although Black Honeyeaters were seen near old campfires near the Ballinyoo Bridge on the Murchison–Mullewa Road in August 1995, our first definite sighting of eating of ash was on Woolgorong Station on 20 July 1996. At 1800 h (after sunset), a female landed beside a live fire and took ash from the perimeter while two observers sat within 2–3 m of her. Most of our subsequent observations have been made on Capillosa, a farm with extensive areas of uncleared vegetation, 15 km north-east of Westonia, and which has been visited regularly since July 2003. Here, a few Black Honeyeaters were present in early September 2008 and a juvenile was mist-netted at this time. In early October, a male was seen feeding in didymobotrya and a female took ash from our campfire. There were no further sightings of Honeyeaters at Capillosa during the rest of 2008, but in January 2009, Black Honeyeaters were seen as far west as Perth on the Swan Coastal Plain (Anon. 2009; MGB pers. obs.). There were no more records of Black Honeyeaters at Capillosa in 2009 until 14 September, when a pair landed beside a burning campfire. On our next visit, on 27 September, two females and one male were mist-netted and banded near the campfire. The fire, which had been lit at 0600 h, seemed to attract the , with at least six flying, hovering and landing beside the fire. This activity is quite spectacular, reminiscent of bees buzzing around a honey-pot, and was well described by Gould (1848): ‘Its flight is remarkably quick, and performed with zigzag starts’. Later on 27 September, several Honeyeaters were still flying about the camp 20 minutes after sunset. A female that had been caught at 1610 h was back taking ash at 1705 h. The following morning, another female was caught and banded, and a female captured the previous day was retrapped. During our next visit (8–12 October), none of these birds was resighted, but another four Black Honeyeaters were mist-netted at the campfire. A female captured on 8 October was seen to return to the fire on at least six occasions, once VOL. 27 (4) december 2010 Notes on Black Honeyeater, WA 155 on 9 October, once on 10 October and four times on 12 October (at 0725, 0730, 0820 and 0840 h). After taking ash, some of the females foraged by sallying from the outer foliage of nearby Wheatbelt Wandoo trees, before returning to the campfire. As with previous reports of Honeyeaters eating ash, the females were fearless (e.g. Coate 1987) and were not aggressive when on the ground together. One landed briefly on a burning root. Their activity on each visit to the campsite ranged from a single peck to ‘feeds’ lasting 1 minute. In contrast, males occasionally landed near the fire, but none was seen to take ash. All of the females caught near the campfire had well-developed brood-patches, whereas the female caught at her nest (with nestling) had a brood-patch classed as ‘old’. The first two females captured on 27 September weighed 10.8 and 11.7 g (heavier than three males weighed at Capillosa, which were 9.2, 9.6 and 10.2 g), and each had a distended cloaca, suggesting that these birds were laying or about to do so. The average weight of the four females caught 2 weeks later was 9.1 g (range 9.0–9.1g), suggesting that they had finished laying. We had hoped to supplement our observations on the breeding status of the females by finding nests, and determining how far the Honeyeaters had to travel to the fire. Our campsite was situated in a clearing surrounded by low heath and mallee, with many flowering shrubs, such as Grevillea hookeriana, to the north and mainly tall dense shrubland dominated by casuarinas Allocasuarina spp., with some wandoo woodland, to the south. Almost all females leaving the campfire flew toward the dense shrubland. This area was very difficult to search for nests, and only one nest was found, ~200 m from the campfire, which contained two eggs on 12 October and one chick 4–5 days old on 25 October. The female at the nest was banded on 25 October but she was not subsequently seen at the campfire. None of the previously banded birds was resighted on this trip (25–27 October) and only two Honeyeaters were seen taking ash. After 7 mm of rain overnight on 27 October, none was seen to visit the fire.

Discussion

What are the characteristics of the irruptions? Our long-term Western Australian records (Table 1) showed an irruption in nine of 60 observer-years at seven sites. In the Central Wheatbelt (two sites), Black Honeyeaters were recorded in five of 13 observer-years during this study, which is a higher rate than that found by other observers in the wheatbelt as a whole. For example, there is only one mention of Black Honeyeaters in the lists of eight observers resident for 3 or more years at nine different locations in the wheatbelt from 1901 to 1973, and totalling at least 100 observer-years (see Kitchener et al. 1982, and references therein). Further, there was only one record of Black Honeyeaters during expert surveys of 22 wheatbelt reserves during the 1970s (Kitchener et al. 1982). Another characteristic of the irruptions in Western Australia is a trend for them to occur in pairs of consecutive years (1995–96 and 2008–09). In a review of literature records of Black Honeyeaters in southern South Australia and other eastern states between 1901 and 1974 (Ford 1978), of the 18 years in which Honeyeaters were observed, only three occurred in single, isolated years, with the rest recorded in sets of two or three consecutive years. Milne (1938) also had records in one pair of consecutive years in his records for (i.e. 1922, 1928, 1929 and 1937). AUSTRALIAN 156 BROOKER & CALE Field Ornithology

Irruptions sometimes occurred at the same time on a regional and continental scale. Within Western Australia, Black Honeyeaters were recorded in both the southern Kimberley (Anon. 1994) and the south-west (Bamford 1995) in 1994, and in both the Central Wheatbelt and the Murchison in 1995 and 1996 (Table 1). They have also been recorded outside the arid zone on both sides of the continent several times. In 1984 they were recorded in north-western and at Wubin, Mullewa and the Murchison in Western Australia (Pescott 1985); in 1994, they were recorded in the Wimmera in Victoria (Watson 1995), and in the southern Kimberley and the south-west of Western Australia (as above); and in 2008 and 2009, Black Honeyeaters were seen near Moree and Armidale in (H.A. Ford pers. comm.), coinciding with our 2008–09 observations in Western Australia. Following the irruptions in the wheatbelt of Western Australia in spring 2008, Black Honeyeaters were recorded on the Swan Coastal Plain in the ensuing summer. A similar pattern was observed in South Australia, with Honeyeaters seen in spring 1975, followed by the most southerly record of the species in South Australia in the following February (Ford 1978). We have not tried to examine the reasons behind the spatial and temporal complexity of regional-scale movements of the species, but our records do show some regularity in direction and season of incursion, which support the conclusions of Ford (1978), who found non-random movements in South Australia. In both Western Australia and South Australia, the incursions usually occurred in spring, although the direction of movement differed, being north–south in South Australia and east–west in Western Australia, where there were no records from the southern coastal or northern Kimberley regions (Johnstone & Storr 2004).

Why do females need to eat ash or charcoal during the breeding season? Our observations of mist-netted birds show that females take ash around the time of laying and probably continue to take ash throughout the incubation and nestling periods. Wood ash is rich in calcium (20% Ca dry basis, Coate 1985; 50–75% CaO of total ash, des Lauriers 1994), and examples of birds eating ash and other calcium-rich materials are not new. For example, in Australia, Baldwin (1965) listed four species eating charcoal, and Burbidge (1996) listed seven species (none of them honeyeaters) that had been observed eating ash or nibbling at or eating charcoal. In America, Adam & des Lauriers (1998) listed 14 species of birds, including seven species of hummingbirds (Trochilidae), that were reported as ingesting mineral-rich compounds such as ash, bone fragments or molluscan shells, and Reynolds (1997) listed nine species (of which three were also listed by Adam & des Lauriers 1998) in which foraging for calcium coincided with laying. These observations suggest that females eat ash to form medullary bone before laying or to reduce a calcium deficit after laying, or both. Medullary bone is a non-structural type of woven bone normally found only in the long bones of female birds at the time of laying. It provides a reservoir for calcium and other minerals needed for shell calcification (Dacke et al. 1993). Adam & des Lauriers (1998) suggested that the bones of small species, such as hummingbirds, may not be able to store enough calcium for eggshell production. The fact that, in our observations, only females took ash further supports this suggestion, but does not explain why other observers (e.g. Coate 1985; Pescott 1985; Hutchins 1988) have recorded males also eating ash. The observations of Black Honeyeaters in Australia are remarkably similar to those in the United States of America of des Lauriers (1994), who observed ash-eating behaviour in four species of nesting VOL. 27 (4) december 2010 Notes on Black Honeyeater, WA 157 female hummingbirds, which are also small, highly mobile . There was a difference in foraging technique: the honeyeaters that we observed pecked at the ash bed, sometimes appearing to swallow ash as if drinking water, whereas the hummingbirds licked the fine ash to ingest it (des Lauriers 1994; Estades et al. 2008). It is of interest that at least two instances of feeding on ash observed by us occurred well after sunset, which suggests an urgent need attached to the activity.

Do other small meliphagids eat ash? Unless something is unique in the lifestyle or metabolism of the Black Honeyeater, there would seem to be no reason why the other small members of the honeyeater family, such as species of , Cissomela, Conopophila, Acanthorhynchus and Epthianura, do not also take ash. Graeme Chapman (in litt., http://graemechapman.com.au) has seen Banded Honeyeaters Cissomela pectoralis feeding on ash, and Robinson (1995), in a note which refers to Black Honeyeaters ‘pecking into the ash’ of a campfire, gave a secondhand report of Crimson Chats Epthianura tricolor ‘acting similarly’. Given that it took almost two centuries for this apparently long-standing behaviour of Black Honeyeaters to be reported, and given that supplies of ash and charcoal have always been readily available and widely distributed in most Australian landscapes, the suggestion of des Lauriers (1994) that ‘ash feeding by nesting birds may be more common than the limited records suggest’ may apply equally to the Australian avifauna.

How do honeyeaters locate sources of ash? Our campfire at Capillosa, which attracted numerous Black Honeyeaters in spring 2009, was first established at that location in 2003. The site is isolated and there are no other regularly occurring sources of ash within 2 km of it. Black Honeyeaters are most likely to have detected our fire by seeing the smoke, which is most obvious when the fire is relit each morning. Another explanation could be that they have learnt to associate human activity or habitation (in this case a white caravan) with campfires. Most of the places where Coate (1985, 1987) saw ash being eaten were at long-established campsites beside the Murchison River or near shearing sheds.

Why was this conspicuous behaviour not reported until the 1980s? Baldwin (1965) described observations of eating of ash or charcoal by Dusky Woodswallows Artamus cyanopterus, Fairy Martins Petrochelidon ariel, Zebra Finches Taeniopygia guttata and Double-barred Finches T. bichenovii in 1964, but did not mention honeyeaters. Before Serventy updated the fifth and final edition of the Birds of Western Australia (Serventy & Whittell 1976), he consulted widely with both professional and amateur ornithologists (MGB pers. obs.). It seems inconceivable that he would not have been aware of such observations if they had been in the public arena. It is possible that eating of ash may previously have been interpreted as foraging for invertebrates among the coals, or perhaps it was deemed too bizarre to be published. Aborigines living in the vast arid zone of Australia must surely have seen Black Honeyeaters taking ash from their campfires, but there appears to be no mention of it in their folklore. They must have been aware of the species, as Gould (1848) cited the aboriginal name Dwer-da-nyok-ngun-nin, which was provided by John Gilbert, AUSTRALIAN 158 BROOKER & CALE Field Ornithology who learned it from the inhabitants of the York area. Perhaps regular burning, which was often a part of Aboriginal land management, provided sufficient sources of ash, thus making visits by the honeyeaters to isolated campfires unnecessary.

Acknowledgements We thank Graeme Chapman for sharing his records of Banded Honeyeaters, Allan Burbidge and Ron Johnstone for assistance with references, and Hugh Ford, Peter Higgins, Lesley Brooker and Eleanor Rowley for helpful comments.

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Received 2 June 2010 