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Buff-rumped Thornbill (Acanthiza reguloides) Alternate name(s): "Buff-rumped Tit", "Buff-rumped Tit-Warbler", "Bark-tit", "Buff-tailed Thornbill", "Varied Thornbill", "Scaly-breasted Tit" Size: 10.5-11.5 cm Body mass: 6-9 g

Australia: Family Group 17 Family Group 17 Table Spotted Pardalote Forty-spotted Pardalote Red-browed Pardalote Striated Pardalote Large-billed Scrubwren Atherton Scrubwren White-browed Scrubwren Spotted Scrubwren Tasmanian Scrubwren Yellow-throated Scrubwren Pilotbird Rock Warbler Chestnut-rumped Heathwren Shy Heathwren Striated Fieldwren Rufous Fieldwren Fernwren Scrubtit Speckled Warbler Redthroat Western Gerygone Brown Gerygone Mangrove Gerygone Dusky Gerygone Large-billed Gerygone Green-backed Gerygone Fairy Gerygone White-throated Gerygone Weebill Yellow Thornbill Striated Thornbill Buff-rumped Thornbill Yellow-rumped Thornbill Western Thornbill Slender-billed Thornbill Chestnut-rumped Thornbill Brown Thornbill Inland Thornbill Slaty-backed Thornbill Tasmanian Thornbill Mountain Thornbill Southern Whiteface Chestnut-breasted Whiteface Banded Whiteface Thumbnails page Family group table Index of bird names Habitat pages Key plants Birds home page

Similar species

Description     Classification     Distribution     Sightings     Photos     Breeding     Nest     Eggs     Behaviour     Food     Call/s

Physical description Click here for a physical description Buff-rumped Thornbills are very small bushland birds. They have a scalloped forehead, which is grey with a hint of brown above the bill (frons). The area around the eyes is also scalloped, but grey, while the throat is light-grey (some birds show some scalloping on the throat). The front (chest, belly, vent) is creamy-buff, while the back (cap, neck, wings) is grey to greyish-brown. The rump is buff. The irises are light-grey, the bill is dark-grey and the legs and feet are also grey.

Taxonomy, classification See Buff-rumped Thornbill at Wikipedia .

Range, habitat, finding this species Click here for information on habitat and range The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found, based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org . The global distribution of the Buff-rumped Thornbill is available HERE . Buff-rumped Thornbills are endemic to Australia. There are four races of Buff-rumped Thornbills which populate the East and South coast of Australia and the Great Dividing Range. Race "australis" is found from about Adelaide, SA, to just to the West of Melbourne, VIC. Further to the East and North, throughout eastern VIC and NSW, up to the Clarence River, race "reguloides" is found. Race "nesa" lives in subtropical QLD and race "squamata" North of the tropic of Capricorn, up to about Townsville, QLD. Given the right conditions, all races can extend their ranges further inland, especially in QLD and NSW, where occasionally they can be found as far inland as e.g. the Paroo River on the NSW/QLD border. Buff-rumped Thornbills live in open forest and woodland, sometimes where there is only light undergrowth. Their preference is for more contiguous wooded areas than those favoured by Yellow-rumped Thornbills. Where to look? How to find this species? Next to Yellow-rumped Thornbills, they are the only species of thornbill known to us that will spend substantial amounts of time foraging on the ground at the interface of wooded country and more open spaces, such as e.g. hiking tracks. In their foraging behaviour they are less conspicuous than Yellow-rumped Thornbills.

Sightings Click here for sighting information Race "reguloides" A group of about six Buff-rumped Thornbills, race "reguloides", was first spotted by us in January 2008, high up near the tops of the Nandewar Range, at an altitude of about 1400 m, in Mt. Kaputar NP. Since then they are found in the Nandewar Range and associated foothills semi-regularly, e.g. in Deriah Aboriginal Area, 30 km East of Narrabri, NSW. Next, Buff-rumped Thornbills, race "reguloides", were spotted in dense, mixed woodland 20 km South of Narrabri, NSW, in April 2012, when about 10 birds were seen. C. Hayne reports seeing Buff-rumped Thornbills, race "reguloides", together with Yellow Thornbills, at Whittaker's Lagoon, 20 km West of Moree, NSW, in August 2011. R. Plumtree reports spotting Buff-rumped Thornbills, race "reguloides", along the Old Coach Road, Ensay South, East Gippsland, VIC, in October 2014. A. Ross-Taylor reports spotting a juvenile Buff-rumped Thornbill, race "reguloides", at Stanthorpe, southern inland QLD, in March 2015. M. Eaton reports spotting Buff-rumped Thornbills, race "reguloides", at Oxley Wild Rivers NP, NSW, in June 2017.

Photos

Race "reguloides"

ADULT

Sex unknown

Frontal view of a Buff-rumped Thornbill; the species can be identified by the light colour of the iris and the scalloped forehead (note also the pronounced forward vision)
[Mt. Kaputar NP, NSW, September 2012]

Frontal view of a Buff-rumped Thornbill looking sideways
[Mt. Kaputar NP, NSW, September 2012]

Frontal view of a Buff-rumped Thornbill looking sideways note the light colour of the iris and the scalloped forehead
[Mt. Kaputar NP, NSW, January 2008]

Near-lateral view of a Buff-rumped Thornbill
[Deriah Aboriginal Area, NSW, December 2013]

Lateral view of a Buff-rumped Thornbill
[20 km South of Narrabri, NSW, May 2012]

Lateral view of a Buff-rumped Thornbill
[Mt. Kaputar NP, NSW, September 2012]

Lateral view of a Buff-rumped Thornbill
[Deriah Aboriginal Area, NSW, December 2013]

Near-dorsal view of a Buff-rumped Thornbill (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Oxley Wild Rivers NP, NSW, June 2017]

IMMATURE/JUVENILE

Close-up near-lateral view of a fledgling Buff-rumped Thornbill (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Mt. Kaputar NP, NSW, November 2018]

Ventral view of three fledgling Buff-rumped Thornbills waiting to be fed
[Mt. Kaputar NP, NSW, November 2018]

Breeding information

Breeding season: Aug - Dec

Eggs: 3 - 5

Incubation period: 17 - 20 days

Fledging age: ca. 16? days

Nest

"bungobittah", "lar", "malunna", "jindi" [bundjalung] = nest [Aboriginal]

Type: Dome (in tree hollow)

Material: Bark strips, grass stems, leaves, feather lining

Height above ground: 1 - 5 m

Lateral view of a branch with a Buff-rumped Thornbill nest inside
[Mt. Kaputar NP, NSW, September 2012]

View into the nesting hollow of a pair of Buff-rumped Thornbills
[Mt. Kaputar NP, NSW, September 2012]

Distant lateral view of a Buff-rumped Thornbill carrying a Crimson Rosella feather for lining its nest
[Mt. Kaputar NP, NSW, September 2012]

Eggs

"boyanga", "booyanga", "derinya", "dirandil", "koomura", "mirk", "ngampu", "nooluk", "pateena", "pum-pum" = Egg; "dirundirri" = eggs [Aboriginal]; "gawu" = eggs [gamilaraay]

Size: 16 x 12 mm

Colour: Creamy, with mid-brown speckles

Shape: Tapered oval

Behaviour

Social behaviour: Communal

Mobility: Sedentary/roaming?

Elementary unit: Family clan/mob

(Next to Yellow-rumped Thornbills,) Buff-rumped Thornbills are one of only two species of thornbill observed by us to regularly forage on the ground. We have seen them hunting for insects on our lawn and paddock. Having caught something, they fly to a nearby tree with dense foliage before eating the insect.

Near-frontal view of a Buff-rumped Thornbill; they are among a number of species that are particuarly adept at playing "hide and seek" with photographers
[Deriah Aboriginal Area, NSW, October 2015]

Food, Diet

To the best of our knowledge all thornbills feed primarily on small insects, but we have also seen some taking nectar.

Ventral view of an adult Buff-rumped Thornbill (top) bringing food for its fledgling chick, a flying insect
[Near Narrabri, NSW, October 2021]

Dorsal view of a Buff-rumped Thornbill taking nectar from Urn Heath
[Dandry Gorge AA, near Coonabarabran, NSW, June 2023]

Lateral view of a Buff-rumped Thornbill drinking from a waterhole
[Deriah Aboriginal Area, NSW, January 2014]

Call(s)/Song

For this species we have recorded the following call(s)/song. The interpretation of their meaning is our own; comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

buthbil_20180922.m4a	reguloides (NW NSW)	Warning calls (mob)	© MD
buthbil_20181112.m4a	reguloides (NW NSW)	Begging calls (fledglings)	© MD

More Buff-rumped Thornbill sound recordings are available at xeno-canto.org .

These pages are largely based on our own observations and those of our contributors. The structure of these bird pages is explained HERE. For more salient facts on any bird species please refer to a field guide.

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