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Yellow Wattlebirds' Diets

The yellow wattlebird belongs to a species of Australian birds called honeyeaters. It is Australia's largest honeyeater and is native to the islands of Tasmania, King Island, Three Hummock and Hunter Island. It is commonly found in dry and wet forests, coastal heathlands, urban parks and gardens, nature reserves, golf courses and cemeteries. The yellow wattlebird is covered with dark brown streaked feathers with white peeking out underneath them. It has a white face and a prominent yellow patch on its stomach. The yellow wattlebird gets its name from the distinctive long pendulous yellow-orange wattle that hangs down from its cheeks.

Main Diet
- A yellow wattlebird's diet consists of nectar from flowering trees. It also consumes fruit, plant sap and insects. You can see yellow wattlebirds in Tasmania visiting gardens and orchards to feed on the non-native fruits and flowers that grow there.
Nectar
- Yellow wattlebirds consume the nectar from mass flowering eucalyptus, banksia and grevillea trees as well as flowering plants such as corymbias, angophoras, callistemons and malaleucas. The yellow wattlebird's specially adapted slim beak is shaped to fit into slender long flowers. It has a brush tipped tongue that it uses to lick up nectar from flowers. The end of its tongue is frayed or fringed and covered with bristle-like hairs that readily soak up liquid nectar and sap. When it eats, the bird rapidly flicks its tongue deep into a flower. When it closes its bill, the upper mandible of its beak presses down on the bristles and presses out the liquid so it can swallow it.
Fruits and Insects
- Wattlebirds feed on fallen overripe fruits and berries in local gardens and orchards. They also consume the sugary exudates, or sap of plants, such as in the cider gum tree and invertebrates such as butterflies, moths, ants, spiders and honeydew aphids. Honeydew aphids are light green parasitic insects with thin black legs that secrete a sticky liquid called honeydew while eating sap from plants.
Migratory Feeders
- Wattlebirds are very mobile and will fly quite far to find seasonal nectar sources. Yellow wattlebirds migrate to the lower parts of the Tasmanian islands during the autumn and winter months to find sources of food. There they frequent urban gardens and coastal areas where their preferred flowering trees, such as the eucalyptus and banksia, are in bloom.
Feeding Behavior
- Feeding behaviors of the yellow wattlebird include eating in mass flocks, boisterous chasing, squabbling and calling out to other birds. Yellow wattlebirds flit from perch to perch while eating and will stretch up or sideways to feed from flowers. They can even hang upside down from perches to get to the nectar in the center of the flower.

Animals & Science