Uncommon on mainland Australia. Common in Tasmania. Sedentary or locally nomadic.
Habitat
Scrublands and woodlands, especially those dominated by casuarinas, paperbarks or tea-trees, often near wetlands. Also low or shrubby regions including heathlands, grasslands and sedgelands.
Habits
Usually in pairs during the breeding season and in small family groups or small flocks of upto 20 birds in the non-breeding season. Often associated with Red-browed Finch (Neochmia temporalis).
Food
Mostly seeds of grasses and other plants. Occasionally some other vegetable matter and invertebrates, mainly insects.
Voice
A single, mournful, undulating 'whee-ee-ee'. A soft 'chrrit' contact call. Abrupt 'tchup-tchup' uttered in alarm.
Nest
Like a bottle on its side, composed of thin dried grass, green grass and a few leaves, placed in thick foliage of a bush or tree.
Eggs (Guide)
2 - 6, usually 4 - 5; white; oval; about 18 x 12 mm. Incubation: 20 - 22 days; by both sexes.
Young
Altricial, nidicolous. Fledge in about 23 days.
Subspecies
Sometimes treated as montypic as proposed subspecies appear to exhibit no constant differences from birds elsewhere in species' range.
The following 3 subspecies are recognised:
bella (Latham, 1801) - South-eastern coastal Australia from New South Wales central coast, south-west to Port Phillip Bay, Vic., and Tasmania, and Fourneaux Group, Bass Strait.
interposita Schodde & Mason, IJ, 1999 - Coastal far-south-western Vic., and south-eastern SA, extending north-west to southern Coorong and Ninety-Mile Desert.
samueli (Mathews, 1912) - Southern Mt Lofty Ranges and Kangaroo Island, SA.
Similar Species
Red-eared Firetail (Stagonopleura oculata) which has spotted rather than barred underparts and has a red-ear and within its range with Red-browed Finch (Neochmia temporalis) and Diamond Firetail (Stagonopleura guttata) if only briefly glympsed.
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