Adults: Above, dull olive. Crown, washed russet and streaked white. Wings, browner. Tail, olive-brown, with black band near tip. Eyebrow, white. Cheeks, streaked white. Below, white, streaked dusky on throat and breast. Flanks, washed olive-grey to pale yellow. Eye, grey-white. Bill, dusky, base pale grey. Feet, grey-brown.
Immatures: Duller than adults. Throat mottled.
Other Names (World)
Striated Thornbill, Stripe-crowned Thornbill, Stripe-crowned Tit-warbler, Green Tit-warbler, Striated Tit-warbler, Striped Tit-warbler, Green Tit, Striated Tit, Striped Tit
Food
Mainly scale insects but also leaf beetles, weevils, bugs, caterpillars and spiders. They forage mainly in the canopy upto 50 m above the ground, hop-gleaning quickly through the outer foliage of one tree, then flitting to the next, chipping constantly to keep contact.
Voice
Call: Soft, buzzing 'tiz' or 'tiz-tiz', repeated almost non-stoip, in contact. Song: Quiet, fast, high-pitched trill, only during breeding.
Striated Thornbill (Acanthiza lineata) [XC859575]
by Peter Boesman from Tooborac State Forest, Victoria, Australia (call)
Striated Thornbill (Acanthiza lineata) [XC244286]
by Marc Anderson from Blue Mountains National Park South, New South Wales, Australia (call)
Breeding Season (Guide)
July - December, starting a little later in the mountains.
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Nest
Pear-shaped, with a hooded side-entrance, composed of bark fragments and dry grass matted with cobweb, lined with feathers or other soft material and usually decorated on the outside with moss and lichen. Usually in thick foliage of a eucalypt sapling within 10 m from the ground.
Eggs (Guide)
Clutch Size: 2 - 4
Color: pale pink-cream with red-brown spots, particularly at the larger end
Dimensions: 17 x 12 mm (oblong-oval)
Incubation: 15 - 17 days by female
Young
Altricial, nidicolous. Fledge in about 18 21 daus. Fed by both parents.
Subspecies
Subspecies intergrade. Proposed subspecies chandleri (coastal south-eastern South Australia and Victoria) synonymized with clelandi.
The following 4 subspecies are recognised:
alberti Mathews, 1920 - South-eastern Queensland and extreme north-eastern New South Wales, in eastern Australia.
lineata Gould, 1838 - North-eastern New South Wales south to Victoria.
clelandi Mathews, 1912 - South-eastern South Australia and south-western Victoria.
whitei Mathews, 1912 - Kangaroo I, off South Australia.
Similar Species
Weebill (Smicrornis brevirostris), which has a smaller cream colored bill and more colorful song, Brown Thornbill (Acanthiza pusilla), which has buff scallops on the forehead and a tawny rump, Yellow Thornbill (Acanthiza nana), which is more yellow and lacks streaking on the breast.
Compare Images
The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Pizzey, G., and Knight, E., 1997, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 19691 5
Field Guide to Australian Birds Morecombe, M., 2000, Steve Parish Publishing Pty Ltd. ISBN 1 876282 10 X
Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Simpson, K., and Day, N., 1999, 6th Edition, Viking ISBN 0 670 87918 5
Reader's Digest Complete Book of Australian Birds 1988, 2nd Edition, Reader's Digest ISBN 0 949819 99 9
What Bird is That? 1984, Revised Edition, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 14846 5
Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds 1990 - , Oxford University Press, Melbourne ISBN 0 19 553244 9
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BirdLife International Species Factsheet