A characteristic feature of the bird life in our northern Brisbane suburban backyard for many years was the late Winter or early Spring arrival of a flock of at least 20 Scarlet Myzomelas (Myzomela sanguinolenta). They took up residence in a large bottlebrush in our front yard and found plenty to eat there and in other gardens in our street. After a few weeks most of the flock moved on, although one or two birds usually stayed around for a month or two. Sadly, that no longer happens. The bottlebrush is still there and still flowers, but the birds no longer come.
This experience highlights the fact that the Scarlet Myzomela (Photo 1) likes to move around. It is distributed along much of the east coast of Australia, from near Cooktown in the north to eastern Victoria in the south. The northern birds tend to be sedentary, whereas those in the south are migratory and move north for the Winter. In the Brisbane area, there is a Winter influx of the species (Robertson and Woodall, 1983; Blaber, 1995), with numbers declining after August and reaching their nadir in January and February. It is likely that the impact of climate change will lead to more birds wintering further south, and breeding extending southwards. Consistent with this, Palmer (2024) recently reported the extension of the range of the Scarlet Myzomela into central Victoria. There is a degree of nomadicism in the movements of the species as well, and birds will move locally according to rainfall and flowering conditions. Interestingly, in Blaber’s six-year banding study in the Mount Cotton area (Blaber, 1995), Scarlet Myzomela numbers were lower when rainfall was higher and were not strongly correlated with the intensity of flowering activity. This species is usually encountered singly, in pairs or in small groups, but occasionally larger numbers are found.
Scarlet Myzomelas can be found in a wide variety of habitats. They have a preference for open forests and woodlands, but can also be found on rainforest edges, riparian corridors and trees fringing other wetlands, sometimes in heathland or mangroves, and often in urban areas where flowering trees and shrubs are present. Adults are largely nectar feeders (their generic name basically translates as ‘honey sucker’) and will feed on a wide variety of flowering trees, including Melaleuca, Eucalyptus, Angophora, Acacia, Grevillea and Callistemon species. Sometimes they will eat fruit and insects too and, as with many birds, insects form a significant proportion of the diet of nestlings. Scarlet Myzomelas are very active and sometimes pugnacious (mainly male-male and male-female chases) while foraging, and will often feed in treetops or among the outer branches of flowering trees (Photo 3).
The Scarlet Myzomela is the smallest of the Australian honeyeaters, but with the bright red colouration on the head, back, neck and breast of the male (hence the old name Blood-bird, and the reference to blood in its scientific name, i.e. sanguinolenta), it is one of our most distinctive species. The female is quite inconspicuous in comparison (Photo 2), being generally a uniform brown colour, sometimes with a reddish ‘blush’ around the forehead, lores and throat. It also belongs to the largest honeyeater genus, with the 40 species of Myzomela spread from the western Pacific islands, through Australia and New Guinea to Indonesia. The only similar-looking species in Australia is the Red-headed Myzomela (M. erythrocephala), which largely inhabits mangroves of northern Australia. The discrete red head of the male distinguishes it from the Scarlet Myzomela where the red extends across the upper breast and down onto the upper flanks (Photo 4).
In southeast Queensland Scarlet Myzomelas breed mainly in late Winter and early Spring, with most breeding records in Brisbane being from July to September (Noske, personal communication). The nest is a small cup made of grass and shredded bark that is held together with spider web and lined with plant fibre. It is usually well hidden in dense foliage. Two eggs are laid. They have an off-white ground colour with irregular light brown to purplish-red blotching, particularly at the larger end. The incubation period is 11-12 days, with a similar time until fledging, but this is based on relatively few observations. The female is solely responsible for incubation, but both sexes share the feeding of the nestlings. After the young have left the nest, parental feeding continues for approximately 10 days, according to one early study (Wolstonholme, 1930). Most pairs raise one or two broods during the breeding season, but on rare occasions three broods have been recorded.
Observations made by several workers (e.g. Longmore, 1991; Blaber, 1995) have suggested that the sex ratio of Scarlet Myzomelas is biased 3:2 in favour of males. Whether this is a real phenomenon or not remains to be determined. The male of the species is far more conspicuous vocally, behaviourally and in plumage than the female, so the perceived bias may reflect the greater likelihood of observing (and perhaps mist-netting) males, rather than an actual sex difference. More detailed studies are required to investigate this. If there really is a preponderance of males, why this might be the case is not known.
As with so many common Australian birds, there is still a great deal to be learned about the biology of the Scarlet Myzomela, and much of what is known is based on a limited number of studies. Being such a conspicuous species, it is an excellent candidate for some creative citizen science by interested observers.
Sources
- Blaber SJM. 1995. Abundance, site fidelity, morphometrics and sex ratios of Scarlet Honeyeater Myzomela sanguinolenta at a site in south-east Queensland. Corella 19: 55-60.
- Higgins PJ, Peter JM and Steele WK (eds). 2001. Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds. Volume 5. Tyrant-flycatchers to Chats. Oxford University Press. Melbourne.
- Longmore W. 1991. Honeyeaters and their Allies of Australia. Angus and Robertson, Sydney.
- Palmer GC. 2024. Scarlet Honeyeater Myzomela sanguinolenta: An example of opportunistic irruption and nomadism heralding climate-facilitated range expansion? Australian Field Ornithology DOI: 10.20938/afo41187195
- Robertson & Woodall. 1983. The status and movements of honeyeaters of honeyeaters at Wellington Point, south-east Queensland. Sunbird 13: 1-14.
- Wolstonholme H. 1930. Triple nesting of the Scarlet Honeyeater. Emu 29: 264-266.
I would like to thank Richard Noske for helpful comments and for advance access to data from the forthcoming Atlas of the Birds of Brisbane.
