Buff-rumped Thornbill

 Buff-rumped Thornbill                                                                      Brown Thornbill

 

Often mistaken for the more common Brown Thornbill, Buff-rumps lack the striated chest of the Brown, they have a white eye iris and their rump feathers are distinctly buff coloured.

Buff-rumped Thornbills are generally sedentary and can be very territorial

Buff-rumped thornbills are usually unobtrusive as they hop about on the ground or among fallen timber, and flit about among the foliage of shrubs and trees. They are normally seen in small flocks, and they often form part of larger mixed-species feeding flocks, where up to half a dozen different species of insectivorous birds congregate to forage together. 

Buff-rumped Thornbills have a rapid, tinkling call

Buff-rumped Thornbills usually inhabit open forests and woodlands dominated by eucalypts (and occasionally by native pines or wattles) with an open understorey, often with grass or heathy plants in the undergrowth, and a layer of logs and leaf litter. 

This view shows the obvious buff-coloured rump

Feeding mainly on insects and other small invertebrates, Buff-rumped Thornbills forage in a variety of sites, including among leaf litter on the ground, in the foliage of shrubs and in trees, including the bark of tree trunks. They glean the insects from the surface of leaves, bark and ground litter.

 

Buff rumps are often described as uncommon but they can be locally abundant

Buff-rumped Thornbills build a dome-shaped nest close to the ground in some shrubs or in the hollows of a tree, stump or log.