Phylidonyris novaehollandiae at ANBG

8 New Holland Honeyeater at ANBG

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Identification history

	Phylidonyris novaehollandiae	11 Jun 2019	natureguy
	Phylidonyris novaehollandiae	10 Jun 2019	AlisonMilton

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Author's notes

While these birds are common at the gardens I thought this behaviour was worth recording. I watched a frenzied battle between around nine New Holland Honeyeaters. I first saw three birds on a branch and it seemed that two were juveniles begging for food, the other birds started arriving. At first they seemed to be in two groups when the attack began, with only some birds involved in the attack. The attackee escaped but was pursued and caught by the others, wherein all birds got involved. At least one was not banded. One bird was pinned to the ground on its back while all the other birds were grouped around and attacking it. In later photos it seemed that fights also broke out among others. Photo three shows the ID tags of the bird most under attack. After watching this for two or three minutes I was afraid the bird under attack would be killed so I moved in close to them to break it up.