Western Wattlebirds around Perth (1 Viewer)

Having just written this

...John Bransbury’s Where to Find Birds, which had assured me of little wattlebird at the Gardens. This is a honeyeater and is now called western wattlebird, having been split from its eastern cousin; I had seen that back in 2003. To be fair the book is quarter of a century out of date, which did show many times, if not in the disappearance of various sites, then at least of the species expected at them. The wattlebird was one of the latter. Moreover, my week in the species’ territory couldn't even rustle up one individual.

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to my blog, I am now curious about dipping on western wattlebird. Has it declined? Or was I just not observant enough?

StarainBoy said:

Having just written this

to my blog, I am now curious about dipping on western wattlebird. Has it declined? Or was I just not observant enough?

Click to expand...

Having just spent a week birding in the southwest, I only saw Western Wattlebird at Two Peoples Bay and didn't see it anywhere else. I'm not sure it's that rare but I suspect it's easily missable. They're actually fairly distinctive when seen though.

They are distinctive, that's true. Once I got east, I had no trouble with little wattlebirds, so I'm inclined to think I didn't overlook them; even more so, if you found them hard to come by.

I haven't been birding for long enough to compare with when Bransbury published his guide, but Western Wattlebirds are still pretty common around Perth. I get them regularly in the garden and I'm about 10 minutes from the city centre (in fact, there's one calling as I write this). However, at many sites, they seem to be quite erratic and it's a bit hit and miss whether they'll be there on a given visit, so in that sense they can be quite easy to miss. Knowing their call can be valuable in locating them as it is very distinctive and they can be quite easy to overlook if you don't know it.

I'll just have to write them off as the ones that got away, then, and come back for 'em another time. It's a good excuse to return (as if I needed one!)

Thanks for the replies.