Red Wattlebird
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[Photo] Bird, Red Wattlebird, Anthochaera carunculata. Date September 2006. Author Brett Donald

The Red Wattlebird, Anthochaera carunculata, is a honeyeater, a group of birds found mainly in Australia and New Guinea which have highly developed brush-tipped tongues adapted for nectar feeding. The tongue is flicked rapidly and repeatedly into a flower, the upper mandible then compressing any liquid out when the bill is closed.

Although honeyeaters look and behave very much like other nectar-feeding passerines around the world (such as the sunbirds and flowerpeckers), they are unrelated, and the similarities are the consequence of convergent evolution.

This species is found in southern Australia in open forest, woodland, and near human habitation. It nests in a tree, laying two or three eggs.

In addition to nectar, it takes insects and other small creatures, usually by hawking, and also fruit.

This bird was first described by John White in his Journal of a Voyage to New South Wales (1790).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Wattlebird

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