Just one shot

Do you know how many images I took today? Just one - that's all.

And that shed bird hide is really coming up trumps. When I first got down there, a honey eater was already feeding, and I thought, oh no! Because they scare away the Eastern Spinebills I thought I'd have no chance of getting one. But I only had to wait 10 minutes and this little lass came down to feed. I only had time to get one shot off - and this is it.

It's still not "the definitive" image of an Eastern Spinebill, but by golly, it will do!

Bigger stretch

Yet again Mr. Wiki refuses to acknowledge the existence of Adelaide - as you can see by the first sentence.

The Eastern Spinebill (Acanthorhynchus tenuirostris) is a species of Honeyeater found in south-eastern Australia in forest and woodland areas, as well as gardens in urban areas of Sydney and Melbourne. It is around 15 cm long, and has a distinctive black, white and chestnut plumage, a red eye, and a long down-curved bill.

13-16 cm (5-6 in) long, the male Eastern Spinebill has a long thin downcurved black bill with a black head, white throat with a reddish patch and red iris. It has a brownish-red nape, a grey brown back and pale cinnamon underparts. The dark tail is tipped with white laterally. Females and juveniles are smaller and duller. The call is a rapid piping.

Eastern Spinebills are found in dry sclerophyll forest, scrub and heathland from the Cooktown area in North Queensland south through New South Wales east of the Great Dividing Range, through Victoria and into the Flinders Ranges in eastern South Australia as well as throughout Tasmania. Adaptable, they can be found in urban gardens with sufficient vegetation to act as cover and a food source.

Breeding season is from August to December, with one or two broods raised. The nest is a deep cup-shaped structure of grass and bark lined with feathers, generally in the fork of a small bushy tree or shrub. The clutch is 1-4, with 2 being the average, pinkish eggs with dark reddish brown blotches and spots 17 x 13 mm in size. The female incubates the eggs for between 13 to 16 days before hatching. Both parents feed the chicks and remove the faecal sacks from the nest.

The Eastern Spinebill feeds on nectar from many plants, including the blooms of gum trees, mistletoes Amyema spp., Epacris longiflora,[10] Epacris impressa (common heath), Correa reflexa, and various members of the Proteaceae such as Banksia ericifolia,[11] Banksia integrifolia, Lambertia formosa and Grevillea speciosa, as well as small insects and other invertebrates.

A 1982 study in the New England National Park in North-eastern New South Wales found that there was a large influx of birds coinciding with the start of flowering of Banksia spinulosa there. They have been known to feed from exotic plants such as fuchsias.

During periods of abundant flowering there may be periods of low nectar production, and it appears that the Eastern Spinebill responds to these periodic shortages by storing fat during periods of high nectar production, increasing the amount of time spent feeding, or dropping its day-time metabolic rate to night-time levels.