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Australian Wildlife

  Little Wattlebird (Anthochaera chrysoptera)





Little Wattlebird | Anthochaera chrysoptera photo
Little Wattlebird or Brush Wattlebird

Photograph copyright: Nickolay Tilcheff - all rights reserved. Used with permission.







LITTLE WATTLEBIRD FACTS

Description
The Little Wattlebird is a brown honeyeater. The chest is brown streaked with white and belly is white. The head and upper back is flecked with fine white streaks. It has a paler area on the side of the head below the eye. The grey bill is fairly long and curved, The feet are grey. It does not have visible wattles. Males and females are similar in colour. Younger birds are similar to adults with less white streaks. The Western Wattlebird (A. lunulata) is considered to be a sub-species of A. chrysoptera by some authors.

Other Names
Brush Wattlebird

Size
25cm - 30cm

Habitat
forest, woodland, heathland, parks and gardens

Food
feeds on nectar which they extract using their long tongue. Also east some insects and flowers

Breeding
the cup-shaped nest is made from twigs and grass in a shrub or tree. Lays one or two buff coloured eggs spotted with fine brown spots.

Range
found in south east Queensland, eastern New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and south eastern parts of South Australia

distribution map showing range of Anthochaera chrysoptera in Australia

Credits:
Map is from Atlas of Living Australia website at https://biocache.ala.org.au licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.



Classification
Class:Aves
Order:Passeriformes
Family:Meliphagidae
Genus:Anthochaera
Species:chrysoptera
Common Name:Little Wattlebird

Relatives in same Genus
  Red Wattlebird (A. carunculata)
  Western Wattlebird (A. lunulata)
  Yellow Wattlebird (A. paradoxa)