Australian Native Birds - The Red Wattle Bird & the Little Wattle Bird & Yellow Wattle Bird
87Red Wattle Bird
The Australian Native Red Wattle bird, is the largest honey-eater in Australia, with its striking and unusual colorings is a very acrobatic bird.
I watch them every morning searching for their food. Although they eat bugs and other insects they also love to eat the nectar of the gum, bottle-brushes (Callistemon) and grevillea trees when in flower.
They are great to watch as they dart in and out of the foliage and can often be seen hanging upside down to get at a especially nice looking flower.
Red Wattle Birds have a very distinctive Voices, a bit of a cross between a loud sneeze and a barking dog voice. Once heard you would know it every time.
The Yellow Wattle Bird is not on the Mainland of Australia and at this point of time is seen only in Tasmania and King Island which is a small farming and fishing island approx half way between Tasmania and Victoria!
Incidentally King Island , being situated at the entrance to Bass Strait, is reported to be the shipwreck capital of Australia with over 60 shipwrecks and over 2000 lives lost in it's history!
Sounds of our Wattle Birds
Types of Wattle Birds
Strangely enough there is a number of different Wattle Birds in our area!
The different types are listed below:
- Red Wattle Bird
- Yellow wattle Bird
- Little Wattle Bird
The Red Wattle Bird is arguably the largest is the species and is conspicuous by it's large Wattles and bright Yellow abdomen.
The Little Wattle bird's name refers to the size of the Wattle rather than the size of the bird. In fact sometimes the Little Wattle bird's Wattle is not evident at all.
Sounds of the Wattle Bird
If you would like to hear the sounds of the various Wattle Birds please feel free to watch the short Slide-show video that I have put together to enhance the viewing experience!
Wattle bird 'hawking'
Red Wattle Bird uses Hawking to gather food
Nearly every night I can watch The Red Wattle bird seeking it's meal. One of the main methods the wattle bird uses is called 'Hawking'
Hawking, a term derived from the way that Hawks capture their food, is a method many types of birds use to catch insects that fly in the air.
The bird in question, in my case the Red Wattle Bird will perch on a limb of a tree and keep watch. When they spot an insect in the air they will leave their perch, fly out and snatch the insect with their beak, some times you can see the bird hovering in the air.
The Wattle Bird will then return to their cover and devour their catch.
And so the process continues until the bird is sated.
Hawking can also be called 'fly-catching' and some other breeds of birds that use this method of gathering food are 'swifts' 'swallows' and 'nightjars'
The Red Wattle Bird does not rely completely on this method of food gathering as they love to gather the nectar from the 'gum trees' and 'grevilleas'
Red Wattle
Wattle Bird origin
Until just recently I thought that the Wattle Bird had got it's name due to it's relationship with our Australian native acacia tree with the common name of Wattle. However this is not the case at all!
So let me clear this up!. The Red Wattle Bird ( Anthochaera carunculata ) to give this bird it's correct name is not named because it eats or lives in the Wattle tree it is actually a member of the Honeyeater family.
The name 'Wattle' is a reference to the flesh like dewlap (see the image)that hangs down from either side of it's head similar I guess to we humans 'ear lobes'.
Other birds known to have this dewlap are chickens, turkeys.
Breeding
The Red Wattle Bird in particular has a nest that is not all that big just a few twigs and bark placed in the fork of a branch. Generally the bird lays 2 or 3 eggs and the eggs seem quite large for a bird of it's size. The egg of a Wattle Bird measures around 36mm x 22mm.
Little Wattle Bird ( Anthochaera chrysoptera ) 27 - 33 cm
The Little Wattle Bird is about 6 cm smaller than it's big brother the Red Wattle Bird and it is hard to distinguish between a Juvenile Red Wattle and a Little Wattle bird.
The main difference is that the Little Wattle has no visible Wattles (go figure) and has a silvery patch down it's ears. The eyes of the Little Wattle bird are a Grey-blue color
The Little Wattle Bird is a noisy bird and can often be seen flying around in pairs apparently oblivious to everything around them. They also have a much more attractive voice and you can hear them having conversation with each other, the female in a higher pitch than the male and making different sounds of 'bill snapping' chuckling types of calls.
Breeding of Little Wattle Birds
They have a similar pattern to the Red Wattle Bird but they tend to hide their nests a bit better.
They also lay 2-3 eggs and fortunately for them their eggs are slightly smaller measuring only 29mm x 21mm.
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Beautiful pictures.
@Robwrite: I agree Rob I think that the Red Wattle bird is very under rated but to me birds are the most beautiful creatures on this Earth and we should do all that we can to protect their habitat.
Thanks for the comment:-)
@dahoglund These Red Wattle birds make it easy to take good photographs. Thanks mate I do appreciate your kind comments:-)
Oh I remember some of the cute Australian birds in Melbourne, especially the Butcher bird. They are so cheeky!
I'll vote up. I've had butcher birds steal my bait when I'm fishing. They can be quite cunning. I suppose that is what Snurre means by cheeky.
Wattle birds tend to be more colorful in real life. Photos don't do them much justice. The color patterns on the wings are quite pretty if you study them.
Very Nice! You'd never, EVER get done with writing hubs about the fascinating wildlife in Australia. I really like reading about the animals that are unique to any region of any place though.
I've never heard of wattle birds before - this was a fun read! I've learned my new thing of the day :D
Great information.Thanks
@snurre... Oh yeah we have many cheeky birds here in Melbourne. The Butcher bird is a very aggressive bird but if want real cheeky, do you remember the Willie Wag Tail ?
Thanks for dropping by :-)
@Rod... mate thanks for the vote up and yes butcher birds will do that when they can lol
You are correct about the color of the wattle bird. Because the Red Wattle Bird is such a fast bird and they don't sit still for very long It was hard for me to get a really decent picture. If I manage to get one I will post it into the Hub!
@Wesman Thanks mate I appreciate your kind comment:-)
You are so correct! Australia has such unique animals that I have not even scratched the surface in presenting them to our readers on Hubpages.
I will certainly be publishing more about our Birds and Wildlife as time permits!
Thanks again for the visit :-)
@Simone G'day and it is always a pleasure to see your 'Bows' on one of my Hubs :-)
I have the same policy of learning something new every day!
Some people here in Australia have never heard of or understand the true meaning or the Red Wattle Bird :-)
@alladream, thanks for dropping by, and finding the information on our Australian Native Birds helpful !
Do they sing? This bird is unknown to me. I wanna listen songs of this bird if they sing at all.
I love birds and you have nice information about Australian native birds. I had never knew about this before. Thanks for writing and share with us. I also love all stunning pictures here. Well done, my friend. Rated up!
Prasetio:)
@upal in answer to you question, do they sing?
I would not call the noise that the Red Wattle bird makes singing although they do have a 'voice'.
I am working on a video to instal on this Hub to give you some idea or how they sound!
Thanks for your question:-)
@prasetio. Thank you my friend I do appreciate your kind comment. Like yourself I like to share my knowledge and let other cultures know more about my wonder country!
The Red Wattle Bird is just one example of our unique fauna and flora.
Your visits are very much appreciated :-)
Hi, I had never heard of it before, fascinating to know why it was called the wattle because of his neck, I am also lucky to have a great bird that lives in the tree near me, the Red Kite! I love the sound that it makes, not like an ordinary bird, thanks for a really interesting hub, cheers nell
G'day Nell, I must confess that I did not know about the Red Wattle Bird origin until I started the research.
I just checked out the Red Kite! This is a beautiful looking bird and looks a bit like an Eagle!
Thanks for dropping by :-)
agvulpes, Thank you for sharing another brilliant hub about your fascinating creatures always a joy to read.Best wishes to you.
G'day DAL, it's a pleasure to see you again. The Red Wattle Bird is indeed fascinating. In fact I am watching them right now. I believe they may be selecting partners for next season ?
Thanks for your kind comment:-)
Cheers mate !
Hi Peter. The Aussie wild birds are a joy to wake up to. I'm no expert on them, so your hubs are interesting to read. My wife Linda has just bought a telephoto lens so that she can get some good close up shots at our shack in East Warby. She has also started a lead lighting course. She is good artistically too, so she wants to incorporate many birds into lead light windows. We have thirteen small windows above larger ones in our house in Melbourne, so she will be busy with that project. The small windows are about 700x 300 so there's a bit of space to cover. Now all she has to do is find the time to do them all. Must away Keith.
G'day Keith, we are wakened every morning with the chatter of the various birds, including the Red Wattle bird. I'm sure Linda will see many birds up at E/Warby. I hope that she is endowed with plenty of patience and a steady hand :-)
I have done some Lead Lighting in the past and I feel sure that she will enjoy the experience. Cutting glass and soldering seem to be the biggest tasks to master for the newcomers. I wish her luck with both of these adventures.
For anyone interested in hearing the sounds of the Red Wattle Bird I have just added a short video to give you the aural experience as well as the visual!
I love birds. A kingfisher sleeps near our house and wakes me up early in the morning with its loud cry. As a child I stole youngs of stone doves for pets. I wanted to train a bird to talk so I got youngs of martinez which is similar to Talking Mayna; martinez can also be trained to imitate people talk. I never succeeded making a bird talk. The first time my young dove slipped out from its cage while I was feeding it,it came back. But the second time around it never did. It made me sad. I never got a young dove again.
Congratulations on being named the hub of the day. It must be a job to have those birds near you. They are beautiful.
Yes!! Flora got to congrats before me but yippee for Agvulpes on a fantastically written hub and HUB of the DAY!!!
you rock!!!
Nice overview of Wattles. Liked the video you put together, too.
Beautiful bird, beautiful singsing! Simple and fluent writing introduction. Anyway, lovely nature! We all love it.
@conradofontanilla, you are so fortunate to have a Kingfisher so near to your home:-)
I think that it is stating the obvious that I have a deep love of birds myself and being woken by them in the morning is one of the great joys in life. Do you not agree?
I am not familiar with the stone dove but I will do some research and see if we have similar birds. In Australia we have a good range of birds that talk (imitate voices), in fact I believe that nearly all birds have the ability to imitate sounds.
My personal choice is to not keep birds in cages UNLESS they have been bred for that specific reason and have not known there freedom, such as Homing Pidgeons etc.
Thanks so much for dropping by and sharing with us your experiences:-)
@FloraBreenRobison. Thank you and I do regard it as a high honor to be awarded the Hub of the Day.
It is indeed a great joy to have the Red Wattle Birds keeping us amused with their antics!
Thanks for dropping by and leaving a nice comment :-)
@RNMSN, Thanks Barbara, I certainly appreciate your kind words of support and thank you so much for taking the time to read about our Red Wattle Birds. They are indeed a delight to have around the place:-)
Thanks again for the 'Yippee' and the 'You Rock' :-)
@RTalloni, thanks for taking the time to have a look at my hub on our Red Wattle Bird they are a fascinating bird. I am looking at ways of improving my video making ability!
@Hui (?) Thank you for dropping by and leaving such a lovely comment, your kind thoughts are much appreciated.
Cheers :-)
There was a yellow wattle bird who used to eat all the peppery black berries off my curry leaf tree when no other bird would touch them. I have long wondered what kind of bird it was and today you have told me.
Nice Hub, and congrats on Hub of the day!
@Papayo, yep the wattle bird seems able to eat anything.
The Red Wattle Bird does exactly the same thing with the berries from our Lilly Pilly trees. lol
I'm pleased that I have been able to help in some small way!
Thanks for taking the time to read this Hub :-)
@AgesMGMT, Thanks for dropping by and leaving such a nice comment on my hub about the Red Wattle Bird they sure are a great bird to have around the place :-)
Amazing Creature..!!!
Thanks so much for your kind comment :-)
Dude!
You were Hub of the day, how could I not read! Especially when I saw that curry-munching sparrow once again.
Curry leaf trees have a black berry that is safe to eat (if birds eat we can eat) that is sweet and luscious to first taste and sweet and peppery on the aftertaste.
He and I were the only ones who enjoyed eating them and he got most of them.
I do miss the competition now that he no longer calls.
A beautifully compiled hub. We live in South gippsland on the coast. I am sure we have wattle birds here although I am not a bird buff. We have mainly parrots and rosellas. We also have the prielege of being able to watch some majestic eagles who nest in a dead tree on one of our farms. Amazing creatures.
Thankyou for a very informative hub.
These are beautiful birds indeed. It is always interesting to watch the food gathering patterns of birds, but I was disturbed when I recently saw a black crow take what looked like an egg from a smaller birds next. The smaller birds went after him, but there was little they could do.
Great post..Thanks
Papayo, LOL yes I had my 15 minutes of fame now it is back to the salt mines :-)
I would sure love to see you and that Wattle Bird fighting over spilt mild oops sorry spilt berries lol
I guess one of the prices we pay for so called 'progress' is the loss of habitat for our Native Birds.
I hope that this little friend comes back and shares the Berries when the next season comes up.
Thanks heaps for taking the time to come back and visit :-)
@Jokylu, thank you for your kind words :-)
I love the area of the coast around South Gippsland I have spent many a pleasant time at Kilcunda and I just love all along that coastline. Pity about the Desal plant they are putting in down that way :(
I feel sure that the Red Wattle Bird would be around there somewhere but I sure envy you having the Eagles as residents on your property. I would image they would keep the vermin down pretty well.
Thanks again for your kind comment :-)
@SweetiePie, Yes they are not as colorful as some of our native birds but they make up for their lack of color with their antics. They are great to watch:-)
The food gathering is another story altogether and unfortunately they are not immune from the old story of 'survival of the fittest'.
There are many birds that prey on the nests of other birds and steal their eggs, butcher birds is one species that come to mind.
However when you think about it, is it any different to we humans raiding the nests of the Hens to take their eggs?
Actually out here I find that the Crows are rather 'cowardly' birds and I have seen them harassed and chased away by the little Willy Wag Tail :-)
htodd, many thanks for dropping by and reading about the Wattle Birds of Australia :-)
Tell me Avgulpes, what happened to the sparrows?
I live on the banks of the gorgeous Georges River, and when I moved here in 1994 there were mobs of sparrows, fifty or more, and they were everywhere. Just as they were in other parts of Sydney. The mobs halved to about twenty or thirty after five years and then vanished - catterploom! From one moment to the next.
The sparrows came back five years later in very small numbers for a few years but then vanished again and now I can say in all honesty that I have seen more wild peacocks in my street than I have seen sparrows of any kind in the last to years. 2-nil.
All of the birdlife in the Georges River has gone too. It became infested with Brazilian water lily and they had to remove all plant life to get rid of it. No more pelicans. No more waterhen. No more black swans. Also the bullsharks made it past the weir and so there are sharks in both the fresh water and the brackish.
Curiously the currawongs have made a return after long absence.
I grew up in Christchurch, a city without pigeons, crows, or swallows. Australian birds remain eternally fascinating to me even after thirty years but seagulls are my eternal favourite - they swim, fly and walk; they remain spotlessly white even after going into the grossest carcass; and they only ever get dragged out of the cake shop kicking and screaming.
@Papayo. Now that you bring it up I have not seen sparrows around here for ages?
To be quite honest here in Australia sparrows are an introduced bird and are widely regarded as pests. In fact the state of WA actively works at keeping the cute little Sparrow out of their state!
You are indeed very fortunate to live on the banks of such a beautiful river it is a pity that more effort is not put into keeping our Australian rivers in peek condition, the lack of wildlife seems to indicate that the river is not in good health?
Well I must say that you are fortunate to have seen wild peacocks I have never been in the right place for that to have occurred.
You have touched on one of my favorite birds with the Pelican, it's a shame that you don't see them any more as with the water-hen and black swans. We actually had a flock of Ibis in out back yard today as well as a pair of Ducks!
I much prefer the Red Wattle Birds to the Currawong, we have crows in our neck of the wood!
I agree with you totally about the Sea Gull they are incredible aren't they always bright and shiny, and noisy, we often feed them on the foreshore!
Christchurch has been through some tough times recently and I really feel for them and hope that they can recover from the disaster.
Thanks so much for coming by and sharing your experiences with us :-)
The river at Liverpool is spactus for the last two years, even the Vietnamese don't fish there anymore. No idea why it is so.
We do get lots of galahs, little pink and grey cows eating the grass seed. We also have that grass parrot that everyone was so fussed about rediscovering after a century of extinction a few year ago. Scare the hell out of pedestrians on the main roads when they fly up. I guess no-one thought to look in industrial parts of Moorebank, lolol.
welcome to my hub
@Papayo, I'm familiar with Liverpool and believe that certain parts of the area are pretty heavily industrialized ? We can't stop progress can we? Or maybe we can! We have the same little galahs on the side of our roads! Oblivious to the cars going past but a pedestrian walks past and they are off!!!
@fullboz thanks for the visit to my Hub called Australian Native Birds the Red Wattle Bird :-)
Fascinating~ and GREAT PICS~ I love how you did the circle superimposed - how cool is that~
Wanted to follow your wife too but can't seem to connect on her link on here. I'll look at it later because I know I've seen her name!
@akirchner thanks for your kind comment. All my own work as well. lol
Thanks for the heads-up on the link. I think it must have broke when we changed to Subdomain. All fixed now though.
Cheers:-)
Beautifully put together - a wonderful reflection of Australian native fauna and flora. Very apt with the wattle being Australia's natural plant also.
Billy thanks for your kind words :-) The local red wattle bird strangely enough does not eat from the wattle tree it prefers the nectar of the Gums and Grevillia trees.
An interesting side line on the wattle tree is that it is a definite miss for people with allergy problems.
That is interesting that the wattle bird doesn't like to eat wattle - which birds do I wonder?
Yes the pollen from wattle can really get to those suffering from hay fever.
Now that you mention it I am not sure if any bird eats nectar from the Wattle Tree.
We do have some Wattle trees on our property and do not recall ever seeing any bird eating the nectar.
I currently have a baby Red Wattle Bird in my care. He came in rescued a month or so ago. He was so small when I got him. He is just starting to get his yellow belly and you can see a small hint of wattle coming up under his eyes. If you'd like photos of him then I am happy to email you some.
Hi Pam, I think it is indeed a great honor and privilege to care for the birds and animals of the wild and people who do this should be given more support.
I would say that when you release this little fella he will not stray far from yourself.
We have a couple of families of Red Wattle and Small Wattle birds in our back yard and they offer us a great deal of entertainment watching them deal with the other bird life:-)
For security reasons I have removed your email from public viewing. You can contact us from the 'Contact' button on the top right hand of this page.
Thanks for sharing the story of the baby Red Wattle bird with us. I hope he is still progressing well :-)
thanks for sharing this awesome hub , rated and voted.
Thank you I appreciate your kind comment :-)
What a fabulous bird and distinctive voice, thank you for this interesting look at the Wattle, I thoroughly enjoyed reading and voted up, best wishes Lesley
That was a beautiful hub, you went to so much trouble, to bring us in to your garden with you...... Even though i am in Ireland, the other side of the world..... It was interesting, and i loved the way you made the video so we can also hear the birds distinctive cry. I must catch up with some more of your hubs.... Voted up and beautiful.
Movie Master thanks so much for taking the time to read and rate this hub on the Red Wattle Bird.
Joy56 Thank you so much for your gracious comment. Australia is very fortunate indeed to have many interesting Native birds, in color, voice and behavior.
Thanks again for the visit and the vote up.
thank you for this most awesome view into the 'wattle's life' I had heard of the little wattle before but did not know this group of birds. Love the Hub - thank you for taking the time to educate us.
q
Hi q, these species of birds especially the Red Wattle bird never fail to surprise me. I watch them every day and I'm learning something about their habits/likes all of the time. Thanks for taking the time to visit and leave a comment :-)
Tell me more about Australian birds. I'm sure that many other people would like to know, too.
These Red Wattle Birds never fail to amaze me with their antics. Better than TV :-)
Robwrite Level 7 Commenter 11 months ago
Beautiful creatures.