Species of bird
The
speckled warbler
(
Pyrrholaemus sagittatus
) is a species of
bird
in the
family
Acanthizidae
. It is
endemic
to eastern
Australia
. Its natural
habitat
is temperate
forests
.
Taxonomy
[
edit
]
The speckled warbler was first described by English physician and ornithologist
John Latham
in 1801. It was earlier grouped with the scrubwrens in
Sericornis
and then in the monotypic genus
Chthonicola
.
[2]
Morphological similarities and DNA studies now place it as a sister taxon with the redthroat in the genus
Pyrrholaemus
.
[3]
It is monotypic, having no subspecies.
[4]
The generic name
Pyrrholaemus
is from classical Greek
pyrrhos
meaning 'flame-coloured, red' and
laimos
'throat'.
[5]
The specific epithet is the Latin
sagittatus
'shot with arrows', referring to the bird's streaked chest.
[5]
Other common names are blood tit, chocolate-bird, little fieldwren and speckled jack.
[6]
Description
[
edit
]
The speckled warbler is a small, ground-dwelling warbler, measuring 11.5 to 12.5 centimetres (4.5 to 4.9 in) in length and weighing 13.5 grams (0.48 oz).
[4]
[7]
[8]
It has an off-white face, streaked with buffy-brown on the ear coverts, and the crown is brown with white speckles.
[2]
The eye is brown, the bill is dark grey-brown, and the legs are pinkish-brown.
[7]
The male has a black upper margin to the brow, whereas on the female it is reddish-brown.
[2]
The plumage of the upperparts is grey-brown with darker streaks.
[7]
The tail is dark-brown with a black subterminal band and white tips, and it is usually held horizontally.
[8]
[2]
The underparts are yellowish-white and heavily streaked with black.
[7]
The juvenile is similar to the female, but the top of its head is more diffusely spotted.
[4]
Distribution and habitat
[
edit
]
The speckled warbler is found in southeastern Australia. It is patchily distributed in
Queensland
, roughly southeast of a line between
Mackay
and
Charleville
, being somewhat more common towards the extreme southeast of the state. In
New South Wales
, it occurs throughout the
New England Tablelands
and the
South West Slopes
, extending westward to the
Pilliga Scrub
and to
Griffith
in the
Riverina
, and eastwards into the
Hunter Valley
. It is fairly common in the
Australian Capital Territory
. In
Victoria
, the speckled warbler is found within a broad strip, including the
Chiltern Box-Ironbark
and
Warby-Ovens National Parks
, the
Bendigo
region, the
Brisbane Ranges
and
You Yangs
, across to Balmoral on the western side of the
Grampians
.
[9]
It is scarce to moderately common within its range.
[2]
Its preferred habitat is open eucalypt woodland with rocky gullies, tussocky grass, scattered logs, and sparse shrubbery.
[2]
Behaviour
[
edit
]
The speckled warbler is quiet and well camouflaged. However, when disturbed, it will make a grating twitter and fly to a perch, then soon return to foraging on the ground.
[2]
Its song is soft, mellow and musical, interspersed with sharp whistles, somewhat like that of the
western gerygone
(
Gerygone fusca
).
[6]
[10]
It is also a mimic of other species.
[6]
[8]
[2]
[4]
Like the
redthroat
(
Pyrrholaemus brunneus
), the speckled warbler makes a distinctive whirring sound with its wings in flight.
[10]
Breeding
[
edit
]
The breeding season is from August to January.
[2]
It builds a dome-shaped nest with a side-entrance in a slight hollow, near the base of a tree or dense shrub, or among fallen branches.
[6]
[2]
The nest is loosely built of dried grass, bark-shreds and moss, often lined with feathers and fur, and resembling the surrounding debris.
[2]
[6]
It lays a clutch of 3 or 4 eggs, each measuring 19 by 16 millimetres (0.75 in × 0.63 in).
[2]
The eggs are a reddish-chocolate colour, darker at the large end.
[6]
[4]
The female incubates the eggs for 17-20 days,
[4]
and then broods the hatchlings. The nestlings are fed by her and the primary male for 15-19 days.
[4]
The nests are
parasitised
by the
fan-tailed cuckoo
(
Cacomantis flabelliformis
) and the
black-eared cuckoo
(
Chrysococcyx osculans
).
[4]
Diet and foraging
[
edit
]
It feeds on the ground, often in the company of other birds (
mixed species flocks
), such as the
buff-rumped thornbill
(
Acanthiza reguloides
),
eastern yellow robin
(
Eopsaltria australis
),
white-browed scrubwren
(
Sericornis frontalis
),
spotted pardalote
(
Pardalotus punctatus
),
weebill
(
Smicrornis brevirostris
), and
silver-eye
(
Zosterops lateralis
).
[7]
[6]
[4]
It is mainly insectivorous, but occasionally eats seeds. Its chief prey are beetles (
Coleoptera
), wasps and winged ants (
Hymenoptera
), moth and butterfly larvae (
Lepidoptera
), mantids and grasshoppers (
Orthoptera
).
[4]
Conservation status
[
edit
]
Although relatively abundant with a population estimated at 400,000, the speckled warbler appears to be declining within its range.
[4]
Threats include land clearance, leading to the advent of invasive weeds and increased predator pressure, as well as over-grazing and salinization with consequent fragmentation and degradation of habitat.
[4]
Drought and fire also pose ongoing threats.
On the IUCN Red List, the speckled warbler was uplisted from
near threatened
to
least concern
status in 2000, having found to be more common than previously believed. In October 2016, it continued to be assessed as
least concern
on the
IUCN Red List
.
[1]
Speckled warbler are not listed as threatened on the Australian
Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999
.
It is listed as "vulnerable" under the New South Wales
Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995
.
It is listed as "threatened" on the Victorian
Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act (1988)
.
[11]
Under this Act, an
Action Statement
for the recovery and future management of this species has not been prepared.
[12]
On the 2007 advisory list of threatened vertebrate fauna in Victoria, the speckled warbler is listed as
vulnerable
.
[13]
SE Queensland, Australia
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
BirdLife International (2016).
"
Pyrrholaemus sagittatus
"
.
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
.
2016
: e.T22728490A94988404.
doi
:
10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22728490A94988404.en
. Retrieved
17 November
2021
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
l
Morcombe, Michael (2012)
Field Guide to Australian Birds
. Pascal Press, Glebe, NSW. Revised edition.
ISBN
978174021417-9
- ^
Gardner, J.L., Trueman, J.W.H., Ebert, D., Joseph, L. and Magrath, R.D. (2010). "Phylogeny and evolution of the Meliphagoidea, the largest radiation of Australasian songbirds."
Mol. Phylogenet. Evol.
55(3): 1087?1102.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
l
Gregory, P. (2020). "Speckled Warbler (Pyrrholaemus sagittatus), version 1.0." In
Birds of the World
(J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA.
https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.spewar3.01
- ^
a
b
Jobling, James A. (2010).
"Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird-names"
. Retrieved
2020-04-22
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
Pizzey, Graham; Doyle, Roy (1980)
A Field Guide to the Birds of Australia
. Collins Publishers, Sydney.
ISBN
073222436-5
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
Slater, Peter (1974)
A Field Guide to Australian Birds: Passerines
. Adelaide: Rigby.
ISBN
085179813-6
- ^
a
b
c
Simpson, Ken, Day, N. and Trusler, P. (6th edn., 1999).
Field Guide to the Birds of Australia
. Ringwood, Victoria: Penguin Books Australia
ISBN
067087918-5
.
- ^
"eBirdmap: Speckled warbler"
. Retrieved
2020-04-22
.
- ^
a
b
"Chapman Library: Speckled warbler"
. Retrieved
2020-04-22
.
- ^
Department of Sustainability and Environment, Victoria
Archived
2005-07-18 at the
Wayback Machine
- ^
Department of Sustainability and Environment, Victoria
Archived
2006-09-11 at the
Wayback Machine
- ^
Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment (2007).
Advisory List of Threatened Vertebrate Fauna in Victoria - 2007
. East Melbourne, Victoria: Department of Sustainability and Environment. p. 15.
ISBN
978-1-74208-039-0
.