The Little Wattlebird also known as the Brush Wattlebird, is a honeyeater

Honeyeater

The honeyeaters are a large and diverse family of small to medium sized birds most common in Australia and New Guinea, but also found in New Zealand, the Pacific islands as far east as Samoa and Tonga, and the islands to the north and west of New Guinea known as Wallacea...

, a passerine

Passerine

A passerine is a bird of the order Passeriformes, which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds or, less accurately, as songbirds, the passerines form one of the most diverse terrestrial vertebrate orders: with over 5,000 identified species, it has roughly...

 bird in the family Meliphagidae. It is found in coastal and sub-coastal south-eastern Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

.

Taxonomy

The species was originally described by ornithologist John Latham

John Latham (ornithologist)

John Latham was an English physician, naturalist and author. He was born at Eltham in Kent, and was the eldest son of John Latham, a surgeon there, and his mother was a descendant of the Sothebys, in Yorkshire....

 in 1802. Its specific name is derived from the Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...

 chryso "golden", and pteron "wing(ed)". The Western Wattlebird

Western Wattlebird

The Western Wattlebird is a honeyeater, a passerine bird in the family Meliphagidae. It was formerly lumped with the Little Wattlebird which it closely resembles. It is restricted to south-western Western Australia....

 (A. lunulata) was considered a subspecies until recently.

Description

The Little Wattlebird is a medium to large honeyeater, but the smallest wattlebird

Wattlebird

Wattlebirds are members of the Honeyeater family, and native to Australia. Species of wattlebird include the Little Wattlebird, the Red Wattlebird, the Western Wattlebird, and the Yellow Wattlebird....

. The appearance is similar to the Yellow Wattlebird

Yellow Wattlebird

The Yellow Wattlebird is a species of bird in the Meliphagidae family.9 Other names include the Long or Tasmanian Wattlebird.2-Description:...

 and the Red Wattlebird

Red Wattlebird

The Red Wattlebird , also known as Barkingbird or Gillbird, is a honeyeater; a group of birds found mainly in Australia and New Guinea which have highly developed brush-tipped tongues adapted for nectar feeding...

. The Little Wattlebird lacks the wattles

Wattle (anatomy)

A wattle is a fleshy dewlap or caruncle hanging from various parts of the head or neck in several groups of birds, goats and other animals. In some birds the caruncle is erectile tissue.The wattle is frequently an organ of sexual dimorphism...

 which characterise the wattlebirds.

Juveniles are duller with less streaking and have a browner eye.

Distribution and habitat

The Little Wattlebird is found in Banksia

Banksia

Banksia is a genus of around 170 species in the plant family Proteaceae. These Australian wildflowers and popular garden plants are easily recognised by their characteristic flower spikes and fruiting "cones" and heads. When it comes to size, banksias range from prostrate woody shrubs to trees up...

/Eucalypt

Eucalypt

Eucalypts are woody plants belonging to three closely related genera:Eucalyptus, Corymbia and Angophora.In 1995 new evidence, largely genetic, indicated that some prominent Eucalyptus species were actually more closely related to Angophora than to the other eucalypts; they were split off into the...

 woodlands, heathlands, tea-tree scrub, sandplain-heaths, lantana

Lantana

Lantana is a genus of about 150 species of perennial flowering plants in the verbena family, Verbenaceae. They are native to tropical regions of the Americas and Africa but exist as an introduced species in numerous areas, especially in the Australian-Pacific region. The genus includes both...

 thickets, wild tobacco, parks and gardens.

Call

Calls include a strident cookay-cok, a raucous fetch the gun, a mellow guttural yekkop, yekkop and many squeaky, musical lilting notes. The alarm call is a kwock or shnairt!.

Breeding

Breeding takes place from June to December. The female wattlebird generally constructs the nest, a loose, untidy cup of twigs lined with shredded bark and placed from 1 to 10m high in the fork of a banksia

Banksia

Banksia is a genus of around 170 species in the plant family Proteaceae. These Australian wildflowers and popular garden plants are easily recognised by their characteristic flower spikes and fruiting "cones" and heads. When it comes to size, banksias range from prostrate woody shrubs to trees up...

, tea-tree or eucalypt

Eucalypt

Eucalypts are woody plants belonging to three closely related genera:Eucalyptus, Corymbia and Angophora.In 1995 new evidence, largely genetic, indicated that some prominent Eucalyptus species were actually more closely related to Angophora than to the other eucalypts; they were split off into the...

sapling. 1-2 eggs are laid and may be spotted red-brown, purplish red or salmon-pink in colour. The female incubates the eggs alone. Both sexes care for young chicks.

Feeding

Little wattlebirds feed on nectar obtained with a long, brush-tipped tongue, adapted for probing deep into flowers. They also feed on insects, berries and some seeds. Most feeding is done perched but some insects are caught in mid-air. Birds may feed alone or in groups.