Beautiful Firetail

Alternative names: Firetail Finch and Tasmanian Finch.

Photo by Tom Tarrant
Melaleuca, Tasmania, February 2003

Stagonopleura bella

Identification

11cm.

• Olive-brown body
• White breast with dark fine barring
• Black mask
• Pale blue eye ring
• Thickish red bill
• Crimson rump
• Pink-cream legs and feet
• Short, rounded wings
• Short, square-tipped tail
  

Juveniles are duller than the adults with a smaller eye patch and a blackish bill.

Photo by jimmclean
Royal National Park, New South Wales, Australia, March 2008

Distribution

South-eastern Australia and Tasmania.

Taxonomy

Subspecies^[1]

There are 3 subspecies:

• S. b. bella:

• South-eastern Australia (Hunter River, New South Wales to southern Victoria and Tasmania)

• S. b. interposita:

• South-eastern South Australia and adjacent south-western Victoria

• S. b. samueli:

• South Australia (Kangaroo Island and Mount Lofty Range)

Habitat

Swampy grass, coastal belts of dry forest, shrubby heath, Buttongrass heathland, tea-tree scrub; never far from water.

Behaviour

Diet

The diet includes grass seeds and the seeds of the casuarinas and tea tree.

Breeding

Both sexes build the nest which is shaped like a bottle on its side with a long tunnel leading to a round egg chamber. The nest is placed in dense foliage near the ground and is made of thin grass stems, lined with feathers. The 4-8 eggs are incubated for 20 days by both adults. The young fledge 20 days later.

References

1. Clements, JF. 2008. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2008. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019.
2. Birds in Backyards
3. BF Member observations

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Beautiful Firetail. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 10 May 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Beautiful_Firetail

External Links

• Arthur Grosset's Birds

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