A tiny, plump, short-tailed bird that is unabashedly beautiful in an understated yet surprisingly exquisite way – meet the red-eared firetail!
Meet the Red-eared Firetail
The red-eared firetail (Stagonopleura oculata), also known as the boorin, is a small finch-like species of bird is a small grass-finch with black-barred and white-spotted plumage, distinguished by its scarlet bill, black mask, and bright crimson red patch behind the eye and at the rump. The plumage of the upper parts is olive-brown and the breast is buff-brown, both of which are thinly barred black.
White spots appear on the blackish underparts.
The female closely resembles the male, except when his coloring intensifies during the breeding season.
These birds prefer dense wetland vegetation of coastal to subcoastal regions in Southwest Australia.
The species is associated with dense vegetation of forest understorey, in paperbark swamps, and on heathland, river frontage, and gullies. The tree species of its wooded habitat are eucalypts, Eucalyptus marginata as well as riparian vegetation amongst or adjacent to eucalypt forest.
A seed eater, the seed is extracted from grasses by using the bill to bend the stem within reach of the foot; the foot then draws the seedhead through the bill before releasing it to harvest the next stem. The seed of taller plants is accessed by perching close to the source and taking them into the bill directly. When taking to the ground to feed, it again uses its foot and beak to bend the grass sheath.
The pairing of individuals occurs in their first year and this bond remains throughout their life. The breeding season is October to November, perhaps extending to January. The nest is carefully and tightly woven from grassy materials, reinforced with the green tips of plants, forming a rigid down facing spherical construction. The number of eggs in a clutch is between four and six, which hatch after an incubation period of fourteen days. The total time of incubation duty is equal in length for each parent. The parents attend to the eggs alternately every one and a half to two hours. When the young emerge from their eggs, both parents remain in the nest for several seconds or up to half an hour after a shift change.
Due to its wide range, this bird is at least threat on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
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