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- Melithreptus validirostris
Identification
15cm. Straight black bill with a heavy base and sharply pointed tip, black head with white crescent across the back of the neck, white-green eye-skin, white chin and throat, olive-grey to green upperparts, underparts dull grey-green. Young birds - lemon-yellow tinge to the back of the neck, a browner head and a yellow-orange bill and eye-skin.
Distribution
Tasmania and the Bass Strait Islands.
Taxonomy
Habitat
Forests and coastal or wet scrubs near wetlands, parks and gardens and in orchards.
Behaviour
It moves up and down tree trunks looking for insects. The diet also includes nectar and fallen fruit.
All adults help with building a small, deep cup-shaped nest from bark strips covered with lichen and lined with soft bark and plant or animal fibres. The nest is suspended by the rim from the outer foliage of eucalypts and shrubs or in the crown of a tree-fern. 2- 3 spotted pink eggs are laid and are incubated by both parents for 15 days; both parents feed the young, with other adults sometimes helping with feeding and defence of the nest.
