Family Flowerpeckers (Dicaeidae)
Least Concern
Mistletoebird (Dicaeum hirundinaceum)
Taxonomy
French: Dicée hirondelle German: Rotsteiß-Mistelfresser Spanish: Picaflores golondrina
Taxonomy:
Motacilla hirundinacea
Shaw
, 1792,New Holland = Australia
.Distribution:
Australia (including islands in Torres Strait and Great Barrier Reef), except Tasmania.
Descriptive notes
9 cm; male 7·5–11 g, female 7·5–10 g. Male nominate race has head and upperparts violet-glossed blue-black; throat and breast scarlet, broad... read more
Voice
Has wide vocabulary. High-pitched double and triple notes, various sibilant calls, a dry “tic... read more
Habitat
Almost anywhere where mistletoes (Loranthaceae) are found, and often in areas of high mistletoe... read more
Food and feeding
Moths (Lepidoptera), syrphids and other insects, spiders (Araneae); fruits, particularly of mistletoes, also nectar and pollen. Fruits... read more
Breeding
Laying in Australia mostly Aug–Apr (but also May–Jul), when mistletoes fruiting, but may occur also when fruits not abundant.... read more
Movements
Non-breeding birds highly nomadic in some areas, in association with fruiting of mistletoes.... read more
Status and conservation
Not globally threatened. Common in mainland Australia, and moderately common on Tanimbar Is (Yamdena) and Kai Is. Widespread in Australia, where occupies home range of c. 20... read more
Hitherto treated as conspecific with D. ignicolle and D. keiense, which see (above). Exhibits some clinal variation in size and colour, being smaller in N, also females in N paler and whiter below, compared with greyer and browner in S and more variable in W. Proposed races tormenti, described from Point Torment (King Sound), in N Western Australia, and yorki, from Cape York, in N Queensland, considered insufficiently distinct from nominate to warrant subspecific separation. Monotypic.