Manorina melanocephala

4 Noisy Miner at Fadden, ACT

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Identification history

Manorina melanocephala	16 Mar 2024	MatthewFrawley
Manorina melanocephala	16 Mar 2024	CarbonAI
Manorina melanocephala	16 Mar 2024	ChrisBlunt

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User's notes

Spotted at Hannah Community Park in Fadden

4 comments

MichaelBedingfield wrote:

18 Mar 2024

Hi Chris. It looks like the bird is eating the feral honey bees. This is a very interesting behaviour. Can you confirm? Also, can you please add a separate sighting of the bees, and tick the box for "Bee nest present".

ChrisBlunt wrote:

18 Mar 2024

Hi Michael. I took the photo from about 20m away so couldn't observe the behaviour at the time. It wasn't until I got home and cropped the photo that I could see the nest and what looks like the noisy miner which is a honeyeater eating a bee. Unfortunately, this photo is now a few years old so the nest is unlikely to still be there. Incidentally, I have seen other nests over the past few years in the same area which I do have photos of.

MichaelBedingfield wrote:

19 Mar 2024

Thanks Chris. Honey bees are very persistent. There is a Honey Bee nest on Urambi Hills which has been in a tree hollow at least 10 years. We are quite interested in feral bees because they are a threat to insect biodiversity and also take over tree hollows and exclude native birds and mammals. So recording the location of the bees nest would be of value.

ChrisBlunt wrote:

19 Mar 2024

Hi Michael, thanks for enlightening me. I wasn't aware that nests could still be active years later. I have now added a separate sighting as you suggested.

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