Mistletoebird

Photo © by peterday
Windy Point Quarry, Adelaide, South Australia September 2015

Dicaeum hirundinaceum

Identification

Female
Photo © by peterday
Manning Flora and Fauna Reserve, South Australia September 2019

9 cm (3½ in)

• Bluish-black plumage
• Red chest
• Red undertail
• White belly with black centre stripe
  

Female

• Dark grey upperparts
• Light grey belly
• Slight red tinge under the tail

Juvenile has an orange bill with a black tip

Distribution

Australia, Papua New Guinea, and eastern Indonesia.

Taxonomy

Sub-adult male
Photo © by Ken Doy
Sandy Camp Rd Wetlands, Queensland, Australia, June 2018

Subspecies

There are 4 subspecies^[1]:

• D. h. kiense:

• Southern Wallacea (Watubela, Tayandu and Kai islands)

• D. h. fulgidum:

• Tanimbar Island (Yamdena, Larat and Lutu)

• D. h. ignicolle:

• Aru Islands

• D. h. hirundinaceum:

• Islands in Torres Strait and treed areas of mainland Australia

Habitat

Juvenile
Photo © by thunor
Cobar, New South Wales, Australia, 23 February 2021

Trees and shrubs; anywhere where mistletoe grows.

Behaviour

Diet

Their diet consists of mistletoe berries, fruit, nectar, pollen, spiders, moths, .

Breeding

Both adults build the nest^* of crushed plants, palm threads and spider webs.

^*Most on-line sources state that only the female builds the nest, but this picture shows a male collecting nesting material from a palm.

References

1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, S. M. Billerman, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2019. The eBird/Clements Checklist of Birds of the World: v2019. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
2. Bird Forum Member observations
3. Cheke, R., J. del Hoyo, N. Collar, C. Mann, and G. M. Kirwan (2020). Mistletoebird (Dicaeum hirundinaceum), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (S. M. Billerman, B. K. Keeney, P. G. Rodewald, and T. S. Schulenberg, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.mistle1.01

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Mistletoebird. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 11 May 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Mistletoebird

External Links

Search for photos of Mistletoebird in the gallery

GSearch checked for 2020 platform.