THE WESTERN AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST Vol. 28 27th January 2012 No. 2 USE BY HONEYEATERS AND PARROTS OF A BROWN MALLET PLANTATION AND AN ARBORETUM AT DRYANDRA WOODLAND, WESTERN AUSTRALIA, AT A TIME OF YEAR WHEN FEW OTHER NECTAR RESOURCES WERE AVAILABLE By WILLIAM E. DAVIS, JR. Professor Emeritus, Boston University, 23 Knollwood Drive, East Falmouth, MA 02536, USA. Email: [email protected] and HARRY F. RECHER School of Natural Sciences, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, WA 6027, Australia Current address: P.O. Box 154, Brooklyn, NSW 2003, Australia. Email: [email protected] ABSTRACT We report on nectar foraging for five species of honeyeater and three species of parrots at a Brown Mallet (Eucalyptus astringens) plantation and an arboretum at Dryandra Woodland, Western Australia, during spring and compare these to nectar foraging on Dryandra spp. nectar in nearby shrublands. The arboretum and mallet plantations provide nectar when flowers are scarce in adjacent woodlands and shrublands and are therefore presently useful for the conservation of nectar-feeders in Dryandra Woodland. INTRODUCTION nectar resources that differ in their spatial and temporal Many honeyeaters (Meliphagidae) availability (Keast 1968; Ford 1977; and parrots (Psittacidae) use Ford and Paton 1977). Because of nectar and rely on a sequence of the spatial and temporal 69 variability in nectar resources, birds is limited. We report here identifying nectar resources in on the use of nectar in the major habitat types is necessary arboretum and a mallet to ensure that conservation of plantation in August and honeyeaters and parrots occurs October, 1997 by honeyeaters and on spatial and temporal scales parrots, and compare these to the large enough to accommodate use of nectar in naturally the movements of the birds. The occurring Dryandra shrublands problem is that the incremental nearby. loss of even small nectar resources in the sequence may METHODS cause the progressive decline of nectar-feeders, regardless of the Dryandra Woodland is a Class A amount of nectar available at Conservation Reserve (centred other times or locations (Recher on 32°45'S, 116°55'E) near the 1999; Ford eta12001). town of Narrogin, Western We studied the foraging ecology Australia. The two plots were of honeyeaters in wandoo chosen because of a seasonal woodland and Dryandra shrub- abundance of nectar-rich lands in Dryandra Woodland in flowers. The arboretum is located which we determined what on Tomingley Road at the honeyeaters were present during intersection with Firetower Road in Dryandra Woodland. The winter and spring, the nectar mallet plantation studied is resources used by honeyeaters, and the temporal patterns of adjacent to the arboretum. The nectar availability and use mallet plot was approximately 14 (Recher and Davis 2011). We also 400 m2, with an average canopy monitored the use of nectar by height of 11 m. Mallet plantations nectar-feeders in an arboretum, at Dryandra lack an understorey, with few shrubs and little dominated by Banksia, Hahea, and Eucalyptus species that are ground vegetation. The arbor¬ not native to Dryandra Wood¬ etum plot consisted mostly of 3- land, and in a plantation of 5 m shrubs, and was about 1 ha in area. The mallet flowered from Brown Mallet (Eucalyptus August through October. At the astringens). Brown Mallet is native same time, there was an to Dryandra Woodland, but originally had a limited distri¬ abundance of blossom in the bution within the reserve. arboretum (primarily Hahea and However, extensive plantations exotic eucalypts). of Brown Mallet were established The mallet plantation was in the 1920s and 1930s and these visited by WED for 48 minutes are now one of the most in August 1997 over two days, extensive habitats in Dryandra when flowering had com¬ Woodland. Despite this, in¬ menced, and 160 minutes over formation on their use, if any, by six days in October, 1997 when 70 the Mallet was in full flower. He the primary source of nectar for visited the arboretum for 143 honeyeaters (Recher and Davis minutes in October, 1997. Plots 2011). Species came into blossom were visited between 0700-1200 in sequence with D. nobilis the h, with a few visits in the first to bloom in abundance, afternoon. WED recorded the with the smaller D. sessilis and D. bird species, a single foraging armata following. When D. nobilis manoeuvre for each bird was in heavy blossom, few foraging on nectar, and the plant honeyeaters used the arboretum species. WED tried to avoid or mallet plantation where repeat observations by moving nectar was limited in com¬ continually, but some birds may parison. As the abundance of have been recorded more than nectar from D. nobilis lessened, once. Wandoo (Eucalyptus Red and Western Wattlebirds wandoo) and Powderbark (E. shifted to foraging in the accedens), the dominant eucalypts arboretum and mallet at Dryandra Woodland outside plantation. of the mallet plantations, flower Mallet commenced flowering in during summer and autumn. early August and became a During our study, only indi¬ primary source of nectar for Red vidual trees or branches Wattlebirds (n=31; 48 min), which flowered, and produced meagre had fed earlier largely on nectar resources. shrubland Dryandra nobilis, which had mostly finished blossoming by August (Recher RESULTS AND DISCUSSION and Davis 2011). By October, Data were recorded for five when D. sessilis and D. armata had species of honeyeaters and three largely finished flowering species of parrots on the arbor¬ (Recher and Davis 2011), Red etum and plantation plots: Brown Wattlebirds foraged in the Honeyeater (Lichmera indistincta), mallet, but in diminished New Holland Honeyeater numbers (n=ll; 160 min). No (Phylidonyris novaehollandiae), Western Wattlebirds foraged in Singing Honeyeater the mallet in August, but were (Lichenostomus virescens), Red the dominant honeyeater in Wattlebird (A nthochaera October utilizing mallet (n=35; carunculata), Western Wattlebird 160 min), and the arboretum (A. lunulata), and Port Lincoln (n=80; n=143 min). Port Lincoln Parrot (Barnardius zonarius), Red- Parrots foraged for mallet nectar capped Parrot (Purpureicephalus in the plantation in August spurius), and Western Rosella (n=13; 48 min) and October (n=40; (Platycercus icterotis). 160 min). Red-capped Parrots During winter and spring in (n=3) and Western Rosella (n=2) Dryandra Woodland, inflor¬ took mallet nectar in October, escences of Dryandra species were but not August. Brown Honey- 71 eaters used the mallet in October plantings of nectar-rich shrubs, (n=6), but not in August, while such as Hakea, would assist in continuing to forage in reduced retaining a full complement of numbers for nectar in the nectar-feeders in Dryandra shrublands (Recher and Davis Woodland. 2011). New Holland Honeyeaters also used the shrublands through October, but in October were REFERENCES recorded in the arboretum FORD, H.A. 1977. The ecology of feeding on Hakea nectar (n=3). honeyeaters in South Australia. They were not recorded in the South Australian Ornithologist 27: mallet in either August or 199-203. October. The arboretum was the FORD, H.A. and PATON, D.C. 1977. primary place of concentration The comparative ecology of ten in Dryandra Woodland of species of honeyeaters in South Singing Honeyeaters in October Australia. Australian Journal of (n=6). They were recorded by Ecology 2:399-407. both WED and HFR at the arboretum, where they foraged FORD, H.A., BARRETT, G., mostly on Hakea spp. They were SAUNDERS, D.A., and RECHER, not recorded in the mallet in H.F. 2001. Why have birds in the either August or October. Other woodlands of southern Australia honeyeaters were rarely seen in declined? Biological Conservation either the arboretum or mallet. 97: 71-88. With few eucalypts in flower KEAST, A. 1968. Seasonal and Dryandra species completing movements in the Australian their flowering cycle, the mallet honeyeaters (Meliphagidae) and plantation and the arboretum their ecological significance. Emu were a major source of nectar for 67:159-209. honeyeaters and parrots, RECHER, H.F. 1999. The state of particularly in October. While Australia’s avifauna: a personal there are sound ecological opinion and prediction for the reasons to replace the mallet new millennium. Australian plantations with the original Zoologist 31:11-27. woodlands of Jarrah (E. RECHER, H.F. and DAVIS, W.E., JR. marginata), Wandoo, and Powder- 2011. Observations of the foraging bark this should be done ecology of honeyeaters incrementally to allow nectar- (Meliphagidae) at Dryandra feeders time to adapt to seasonal Woodland, Western Australia. changes in nectar availability. A mytornis: Western Australian Retaining the arboretum, or even Journal of Ornithology 3:19-29. enhancing it with further 72