Thornbills - those little brown jobs

A decent bird field guide will inform you that Australia has ten or more species of those little brown birds called thornbills. They are perhaps the most frustrating bird to properly identify for a beginner bird watcher, hence the term LBJ: Little Brown Job.

Originally, variously called Tit, Tit-bird, Tit-warbler, and Tit-mouse, it wasn’t until the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union in 1926 officially listed them as Thornbills that they got their current moniker. Some references describe the origins of ‘thornbill’ for their tiny thorn-like bill, others say it is because they like to occupy thorn-bushes (which is not always true). Since they belong to the Acanthiza genus and acantha is Greek for thorn or prickle or prickly plant, the obscurity remains – for me at least. The taxonomy of bird names can be a never-ending pursuit. Here’s a link to the Wikipedia page for Acanthiza.

Whatever, our thornbills are endearing little brown (mostly) birds. They are not stunningly colourful, or melodic, particularly, but for many of us sad bird people, they are little charmers.

In West Gippsland, we have three thornbill species that can be commonly encountered; in order of most frequently seen – Brown Thornbill, A. pusilla (pusilla = small) Striated Thornbill, A. lineata (lineata = lined) and the Yellow Thornbill, A. nana (nana = dwarf).

Brown Thornbill

The most common identifiers include: rufous crown with scalloping, red eye, dark striations on throat and belly.

Brown Thornbills have a surprisingly loud call for a little bird – a deep, rolling ‘pee-orr’, a high-pitched ‘seee’, and a harsh ‘tzzt’. Brown Thornbills are usually seen in small groups in the understory. Some lucky people have them in their native gardens.

Striated Thornbill

Obvious streaking around the eye, over the crown and down the throat and belly. Body colour can vary – lemony-yellowy-buff-brownish-greyish …

You need good hearing to hear their high-pitched, insect-like ‘tzz-tzz’ in the tree tops. Striateds are usually found in small groups high in the eucalypt canopy, where they can be remarkably faithful to their territory. Being so small and so high up, Striated Thornbills are probably more abundant in this district than we realise.

Yellow Thornbill  

Yellow Thornbills are almost entirely yellow with some pale streaking around the eye.

They have a deep but soft ‘chidid-tz-tz’ call. Yellow Thornbills seldom inhabit eucalypts and are nearly always seen in the vicinity of wattles, casaurinas, and other trees with ‘feathery’ foliage. Like the striated, Yellow Thornbills can often be seen regularly in the same location containing their preferred habitat.

All three of these thornbills are small and active – good luck!