Yellow Thornbill

I try not to repeat posts on particular species but a recent encounter with a favourite bird has encouraged me to write again about the Yellow Thornbill. The earlier post was in September 2022.

The Yellow Thornbill, Acanthiza nana (Acanthiza = thorn-bush dweller and nana = diminutive) is certainly diminutive, measuring overall less than 10cm, and once known as the Little Thornbill, but it does not particularly inhabit thorn-bushes. Yellow Thornbills are nearly always found in acacia, casuarina and melaleuca woodlands in preference to eucalypt forest.

It is a sedentary species and anecdotally appears to be very loyal to its territory – the bird is often found in the same patch of woodland, season after season.

Yellow Thornbills are insect-eaters. They glean their prey from the foliage and bark generally in the canopy. They appear to remain strictly arboreal.

The Yellow Thornbill is the most yellow of the thornbills and the sexes are similar. It can often be easily confused with the Striated Thornbill and in some places, the Buff-rumped Thornbill. For a little bird, it has a harsh, clipped two-note call described as 'tid-id', or perhaps 'tiz-tiz' often repeated.

The Yellow Thornbill is an Australian endemic and is found in suitable habitat down the eastern seaboard from Cape York Peninsula to about Adelaide. Although not listed as threatened, many references suggest its numbers are in decline – dramatic loss of insect populations due to climate change, bushfires, insecticides…? 

 

Yellow Thornbill

Spring has sprung. Heard my first Fan-tailed Cuckoo and Australian reed Warbler recently. And, there is wattle in flower on all the roadsides.

The Silver Wattles in Balfour Rd (Drouin), seem to be home for a permanent colony of Yellow Thornbills. They’re present year-round.

Yellow Thornbills lack the striations of our two most familiar thornbills in this district, the Brown Thornbill and the Striated Thornbill. The Yellow Thornbill does have some pale streaking on its cheek though, but is otherwise a fairly plain olive-brown to yellow bird.

Described as sedentary with little movement throughout the year, Yellow Thornbills tend to avoid eucalypts, keeping to trees with bushier and feather-like foliage: acacia, casuarina, melaleuca and similar. Like their Striated Thornbill cousins, they are fairly unobtrusive in the canopy.

Yellow Thornbills are endemic to south eastern Australia from about Rockhampton to Adelaide, avoiding the colder and wetter areas of the high country. They have a harsh, double-note call repeated at short intervals.