Time energy budget of the New Holland honeyeater Phylidonyris novaehollandiae (Aves: Meliphagidae) near Hobart, Tasmania

The New Holland honeyeater Phylidonyris novaehollandiae is a member of the family Meliphagidae, which is one of Australia's dominant passerine families (Ford and Paton, 1977). Many siu-dies have been conducted on this species in mainland Australia (e.g. Paton, 1981; 1982; McFarland, 1986) but there is much less data from Tasmania. This study was conducted near Hobart, Tasmania (S 42° 54' 10\ E 147° 19' 26\" average 50 m a.s.1). The site consisted of two adjacent habitats one was dry sclerophyll forest and the other a modified man-made habitat. The first stage of this study was the determination of time budgets. The activities of the New Holland honeyeater were found to be significantly different both seasonally and diurnally. The time proportion for foraging exceeded the time proportion for other activities throughout the year. The study also found that the major diet of this bird was nectar in all seasons of the year while other non-nectar carbohydrate sources such as manna lerp or honeydew were found to be less important in this study. The bird also spent a small proportion of their foraging time to feed on insects to satisfy their protein requiremeni's. . During the study on time budget activity observations on various aspects of the breeding of the New Holland honeyeater were also conducted. The birds in this study had a lengthy breeding season from early winter to mid-summer. The birds were multi-brooded and the mean clutch 'size was 2.14 ±. 'S .E 0.13. The parental roles and nesting activity observed were similar to the earlier studies in mainland Australia. The second stage involved measurement of the basal metabolic rate. This was found to be higher (5.12 ± 0.14 ml g-1hr-1 ) than in the same species from mainland Australia probably because the colder climate in Tasmania is more energetically demanding therefore the birds enhance their thermogenesis with an increased basal metabolic rate. The basal metabolic rate did not vary seasonally perhaps because the birds reside in a temperate climate and are prepared for the stress of changing seasons by making physiological and behavioural adaptations that allow the birds to survive throughout the year in Hobart Tasmania. The third section deals with the time energy budget of the New Holland honeyeater. The time energy budget did not vary seasonally (153.95 -1- 4.5 in spring 134.00 ± 7.5 in summer 130.10 -± 10.7 in autumn and 123.00 1- 7.5 in winter) as the bird balance the time and energy allocation for their activities in facing the varying energy demands of their annual cycle."