Mistletoebird - BirdForum Opus

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

Distribution

Australia, Papua New Guinea, and eastern Indonesia.

Taxonomy

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

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

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. BF Member observations
3. Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved June 2018)

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Mistletoebird. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 12 May 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Mistletoebird

External Links

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