This study reports on the foraging profile of a wandoo woodland avifauna at
Dryandra in Western Australia, Australia. Despite its geographical isolati
on, wandoo woodland shares a large number of species with woodland bird com
munities in eastern Australia and there are broad similarities in community
foraging profiles. Insect-eating birds using ground, bark, foliage, and ae
rial substrates dominate eucalypt bird communities. Nectar-feeding and seed
/fruit-eating guilds are important components of the Australian avifauna, b
ut have fewer species, and vary in composition and abundance as nectar, see
d, and fruit availability changes seasonally and from year to year, and fro
m one locality to another. Despite similarities, there are also differences
between the foraging profile of the wandoo avifauna and those in eastern A
ustralia. Specifically, the wandoo avifauna is characterized by a high prop
ortion of ground-foraging species. In addition, many wandoo woodland birds
appear to spread their foraging over a wider range of substrates (i.e., gro
und, bark, and foliage) than eastern species. Differences in habitat struct
ure do not explain these differences in community foraging profiles, and th
ere may be differences in the abundance, kind, and spatial distribution of
resources between different eucalypt ecosystems. Possibly the eastern commu
nities have lost ground-dwelling components of their avifauna since Europea
n settlement, while the woodlands at Dryandra retain a more intact avifauna
. The reasons why some species and not others are lost from woodlands as a
result of European land management practices are discussed.