A high altitude observation of the beautiful firetail Stagonopleura bella from East Gippsland, Victoria

Abstract

There has been little research on the ecological requirements of the Beautiful Firetail Stagonopleura bella, and its habitat preferences are poorly understood. On mainland Australia, the Beautiful Firetail is generally considered to be a bird of coastal regions and the lowlands. This note reports an observation of Beautiful Firetails on the Great Dividing Range at a height of more than 1100 metres above sea level from an atypical habitat for mainland Australia. It appears that the observation may be the highest altitude at which this species has been recorded on the mainland