Diet of three insectivorous birds on Barrow Island, WA

Wooller, R.D. and Calver, M.C. (1981) Diet of three insectivorous birds on Barrow Island, WA. Emu, 81 (1). pp. 48-50.

Abstract

A recent survey of the birds of Barrow Island, sixty kilometres off the north-western coast of Western Australia (20°50'S, 1 15" 24'E), showed a small avifauna with few land-birds (Sedgwick 1978). During tenure of the WAPET 1979 Barrow Island Research Grant, we compared the diets of the three most common birds on the island: Singing Honeyeater Meliphaga virescens, Spinifexbird Eremiornis carteri and Black-and-white Fairy-wren Malurus 1. leucopterus. These species were widespread among the spinifex and its emergent shrubs and, apart from a few cuckoos and pipits, were the only birds that exploit insects on the ground and round vegetation. Flying insects were taken by Welcome Swallows Hirundo neoxena, Tree Martins Petrochelidon nigricans and White-breasted Woodswallows Artamus leucorhynchus, which were not studied.

Publication Type:	Journal Article
Murdoch Affiliation:	School of Environmental and Life Sciences
Publisher:	CSIRO Publishing
Copyright:	(c) CSIRO
URI:	http://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/1375

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