Adults: Above, dark olive-brown to mid olive-green. Rump and base of tail, pink-cream buff to mid-yellow. Wing, grey-brown. Tail, dusky black, with narrow buff to pale yellow tips to all tail feathers except central pair. Forehead and face, scalloped and flecked buff-white to yellowish-cream respectively. Below, buffy cream flecked grey on throat and sides of breast to plain yellowish-cream with color deepening on flanks. Eye, greyish-white Bill, dusky brown, paler below. Feet, dusky grey.
Immatures: Duller than adults, lacking distinct facial and forehead markings. Adult plumage gained after first fall moult.
Other Names (World)
Buff-rumped Thornbill, Buff-rumped Tit, Buff-rumped Tit-warbler, Buff-tailed Thornbill, Buff-tailed Tit, Buff-tailed Tit-warbler, Bark Tit, Scaly-breasted Tit, South Australian Tit, Varied Thornbill, Varied Tit (squamata), Varied Tit-warbler (squamata), Bak Tit
Derivation
Ac-anth-iz'-a - Gk, acantheon, thorny brake; Gk, zao, I live: rëg-u-löi'-dës - like a kinglet, from Regulus, generic name of kinglets (a small group of northern hemisphere birds); -oides, from Gk eidos, form = like
Habitat
Untidy open stringybark forest, woodland, scrub, with fallen branches, tussocks, rocks. Golf courses.
Food
Insects and occasionally seeds and nectar. Feeds mainly on or close to the ground.
Voice
Call and Song: Rapid ringing, staccato, double-syllabled, twittering chips, 'pit-ta, pit-ta, pit-ta', aound the same pitch, repeated in rapid, quick-fire bursts; given both in contact in feeding flocks and as song in territorial or individual advertisement.
Buff-rumped Thornbill (Acanthiza reguloides) [XC30860]
by Nick Leseberg from Capertee Valley, NSW, Australia (call)
Buff-rumped Thornbill (Acanthiza reguloides) [XC859590]
by Yong Ding Li from Point Addis, Victoria, Australia (call)
Nest
Dome, of grasses and bark-strips, and some dried leaves, bound together with spiders' web, lined with feathers, fur, hair or plant down, placed close to the ground in or under a shrub or low tree, under bark on the sides of tree trunks or in hollows on the ground beneath tussocks.
Eggs (Guide)
3 - 5, usually 4; flesh-white, with tiny freckles and larger spots of pale red to rich red-brown, often forming a zone at the larger end; oblong-oval; about 16 x 12 mm.
Young
Altricial, nidicolous. Fledge in 18 - 21 days. Fed by both parents.
Subspecies
Genetically closest to Western Thornbill (Acanthiza inornata). Perhaps forms a superspecies with Western Thornbill (Acanthiza inornata).
Subspecies squamata has previously been treated as a separate species. Nominate subspecies intergrades with nesa in north-eastern New South Wales and with australis in western Victoria.
The following 4 subspecies are recognised:
squamata De Vis, 1889 - Eastern Queensland (Atherton Tablelands south to Broad Sound), in north-eastern Australia.
nesa (Mathews, 1920) - South-eastern Queensland and north-eastern New South Wales.
reguloides Vigors & Horsfield, 1827 - South-eastern Australia from New South Wales (inland to inner western slopes of Great Dividing Range) south to Victoria.
australis (North, 1904) - South-eastern South Australia and south-western Victoria.
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