Diamond Firetail
Stagonopleura guttata
Plump, tiny bird with olive back, gray head, white belly and throat, white-spotted black flanks, black breast band, and bright red bill in adult. In flight, bright red rump apparent. Dark between eyes and bill (lores). Juvenile plainer, with faint barring on flanks and grayish breast band. Inhabits open woodlands of inland southeastern Australia.
Identification
The diamond firetail is one of the largest of the Australian finches by both weight (15–19 g) and wingspan (64–71 mm). eBird describes the firetail having an olive back and grey head. The belly and throat are white with a complete black band. The flanks are black with distinctive white spots. The rump is bright red and the tip of the tail is black. The rump is also described as scarlet by some authors. Juvenile diamond firetails are duller than the adults and have a black bill.<p>The rump is very distinctive in flight. These birds are generally seen in pairs or small flocks, sometimes up to a hundred birds. The birds fly low and in long lines.
Taxonomy
The family Estrildidae (grass-finches) was named by Swainson in 1827 and "finch" can be traced back to the Old English finc but its origin is debated. Firetail is now used to describe the three species of Stagonopleura. The red-browed finch (Neochmia temporalis) is no longer considered a firetail even though it has a red rump.<p>The diamond firetail has also been known as the "spotted finch (Lewin 1808), spotted grossbeak (Lewin 1822), spotted-sided grossbeak (Latham 1823) and spotted- finch (Gould 1848)". The name diamond firetail was first used in the Royal Australian Ornithological Union (RAOU's) second official checklist in 1926. Stagonopleura, is from the Greek for 'spotty flanks' and guttata from the Latin gutta, a 'droplet'.
- Scientific name
- Stagonopleura guttata
- Authority
- (Shaw, 1796)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Estrildidae
- Genus
- Stagonopleura
Range and habitat
The diamond firetail has a patchy distribution from Southeast Queensland to the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia. The Australian Bird Guide shows its core distribution from southern Queensland (just north in Inglewood) through to Victoria and around the coast to the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia and the eBird distribution is similar. Birdlife Australia has a more extensive distribution from the Carnarvon Ranges in Queensland to the Eyre Peninsula and Kangaroo Island which is broader than other references. This broader distribution reflects the historic range of the bird based on the surveys done for The Atlas of Australian Birds. The species was recorded as far north as the Kirrama Tableland in North Queensland in 1917, as a "new record for the district". <p>The bird is mostly sedentary and lives in open grassy eucalypt forest and woodland, heath, mallee country, farmland and grassland with scattered trees. The bird's habitat has been threatened by alteration of vegetation structure caused by over-grazing, weed invasion, salinisation and other flow-on processes. This loss of main food plants and habitat results in competition with invasive species, and increased predation.
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
Migration pattern: Resident species.
Conservation
Population trend: declining.
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
Fox Kestrel
Falco alopex
A large kestrel with long pointed wings and tail. The base color is a rich rufous with fine black streaking. In flight, the wings are rufous and black above and pale below. Found around cliffs and other rocky areas within dry savanna, usually in pairs. Similar to Greater Kestrel, but slimmer and more rufous, with rusty rather than gray barring in the tail. The calls are agitated “kree” notes.
Azure-crowned Hummingbird
Saucerottia cyanocephala
Medium-sized hummingbird of oak and pine-oak woodlands and adjacent shrubby clearings; also local in lowland pine savannas. Sexes look alike and often look rather dull overall, despite the name. Note the whitish throat and breast offset by a dusky vest, and the dusky brownish rump and tail. Crown and sides of head are blue (rarely catching the light), with a white spot behind the eye and some red at base of bill.
Bar-breasted Piculet
Picumnus aurifrons
Small, greenish-brown piculet. Light olive brown, with horizontal barring on the breast changing to vertical streaking on the belly, and a black-and-white speckled crown. Males have a yellow forehead patch. Forages singly or in pairs around the midstory and canopy of secondary rainforest, sometimes joining mixed-species flocks with tanagers and other species. Its song is a high, two- or three-note “sweet, sweet,” similar to the songs of other piculets.
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