The “pick-pockets” of the bird world were busy with their nefarious trade, stealing treasure from unsuspecting victims.
Tall, wavering stalks of red-hot poker flowers had attracted the attention of eastern spinebills and they were emboldened to take on the much bigger and more aggressive yellow-throated honeyeaters to steal the pollen and nectar.
Usually the tiny spinebills are difficult to see. They operate under the noses, or should I saw beaks, of the bigger honeyeaters, darting into the heart of flowering shrubs to gulp a supply of food before they are noticed.
On this occasion, though, the spinebills were in full view. I watched them from a window at the Signal Station Restaurant at Mt Nelson. The showy red-hot pokers – long considered a rogue invasive species in Tasmania – stood tall and isolated in a rough piece of open ground which was once the signal station’s garden.
This space was proven a rich birding spot in the past, with scarlet robins and fairywrens, along with yellowthroats, on view. A birding friend once saw a beautiful firetail there, but never spinebills at such close quarters.
They were a delight to watch, climbing the stalks and dipping their scimitar bills into the flower heads of the clustered blooms. The eastern spinebills are the smallest of the honeyeater clan – a mere 15 centimetres in length including the bill– and they are among the most beautiful.
They are easily recognised by their very long, fine beak and energetic flight. Males have a grey-black crown which extends in a black line on either side of the breast. The breast and throat are white, with a rufous patch in the centre of the throat. The wings and lower back are dark grey and the underparts and upper back are buff. Females are similar to males but have less distinct markings.
The species also has prominent black-and-white feathers in the tail and this is usually the only chance birders get to identify the birds, as the spinebills flit away from target plants and fly rapidly in search of others.
Spinebills, although not always obvious, are common in the suburbs in summer, where their high-pitched twitter announces their presence even if they cannot be seen.
Their main breeding ground, though, is on the slopes of kunanyi/Mt Wellington where they feast on the bell-flowers of common heath and other alpine shrubs before moving to lower ground when autumn sets in. They travel to lower elevations with another mountain breeder, the crescent honeyeater.
The species is found across south-eastern Australia, right up to southern Queensland and breeds mainly from October to January. The nest is a small cup of twigs, grass and bark, combined with hair and spider’s webs, built in a tree fork.
The spinebills are noted for their ability to hover over flowering shrubs. This distinctive behaviour gives them another name in the state – the Tasmanian hummingbird.