Birds and Communal Bathing
New Holland Honeyeaters
Our bird baths give us many hours of delightful birding. Quite often the honeyeaters come in numbers to bathe communally. When this happens with the New Holland Honeyeaters are often the first - and the bossiest - species to take advantage of the water. Sometimes there can be between five and eight individuals bathing and squawking noisily. With the Brown Headed Honeyeaters the number can be as many as twelve to fifteen at once, but they are very polite and take it in turns to bathe.
During the hot weather we have had this summer the bird baths need frequent replenishing. The water is splashed in all directions. They obviously haven’t heard that we currently have severe water restrictions due to the drought. On one hot day we actually had five species present at the bath at the one time: New Holland, White Plumed and Singing Honeyeaters, House Sparrow and a Spotted Pardalote. Soon after a Red Wattlebird joined the communal bathing.
The photos on this page are better viewed by clicking on them to enlarge.
New Holland Honeyeaters
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February 21st, 2007 at 7:14 am
Hi Trevor,
You are obviously fortunate enough not to have any cats or other predators around, if you are able to have your birdbath on the ground.
February 21st, 2007 at 7:40 am
Yes John - the local cats get a quick send off when we see them. Our garden is about a hundred metres from each of the next door neighbours, who both have cats who rarely visit due to our active discouragement.
We actually have three bird baths in a group. The one in the photo is on the ground and is used by lizards as well. The second is on a stand about 60cm above the ground and the third is on the ramains of a saw off tree trunk at about 1.5m. This gives the birds a choice - some prefer the lower one (esp. ST Doves and Crested Pigeons). The highest is preferred by the magpies and ravens but this is only anecdotal evidence.
I have never recorded the data in any organised way. Most species show no preference. When I have several spare days I will “do the research” and record the data. It could be a very relaxing couple of days.