Yellow Honeyeater on Bribie Island

Yellow Honeyeater Bribie Island

A Yellow Honeyeater has turned up hundreds of kilometres out of its range on Bribie Island, off the south-east coast of Queensland. This is the first record of this species in south-east Queensland, or indeed anywhere south of Rockhampton, 600km to the north, or perhaps even St Lawrence, 800km north.

Yellow Honeyeater

The bird was in flowering shrubs and trees at Banksia Beach, on the eastern shore of the island. It was found last Tuesday (October 28) by a local observer and photographer, Janice O'Donnell.  On the occasion she found it, the bird was feeding with Brown Honeyeaters in a flowering Jacaranda. Janice, who noted that the Brown Honeyeaters behaved aggressively towards the Yellow Honeyeater, had not been able to relocate the bird subsequently.

Yellow Honeyeater

The site is a park off White Patch Esplanade, Banksia Beach, on the right behind some houses just before a bridge over a small mangrove-lined stream. For the record, Janice wanted the whereabouts of the site kept under wraps for the time being as she was concerned that the bird and elderly residents living adjacent to the park would be disturbed by visitors. I agreed to comply with her wishes but Rob Morris, a moderator on Eremaea, published the site details without the permission of either myself or Janice, or even the Eremaea administrators. Rob has an unfortunate habit of regarding records of any interesting bird that cross his desk as some kind of personal property to do with as he wishes.

When I arrived at the site in the afternoon of Sunday November 2 about 3pm, I heard the honeyeater as soon as I got out of my vehicle. It was feeding in a flowering Silky Oak and during the 30 minutes or so I watched, it visited a variety of shrubs. It was quite vocal and did not appear to be shy.

Yellow Honeyeater

The honeyeater is way out-of-range and was presumably a vagrant nomad. Bribie Island has the southern-most population of another mainly tropical species, Fairy Gerygone, so the place has some form in this regard.

Yellow Honeyeater

 The Yellow Honeyeater normally occurs as far south as St Lawrence but there are a couple of sight records claimed for the Rockhampton area.

Yellow Honeyeater habitat - Bribie Island

I called in at Buckley's Hole on the way home. A single female Australasian Shoveler was of note but not much else around. This wetland currently has extensive areas of fringing mud due to dry conditions.

Australian Shoveler - Buckley's Hole