Elsterhonigfresser

Bestimmung

The pied honeyeater has a long curved bill and a small pale-blue patch of bare skin below the eye which is semicircular in males and arc-shaped in females and juveniles. Males are black and white, having a black head, neck and upper parts, a white lower rump and upper tail, black wings with a white stripe, and white underparts with a black tipped tail. Females are brown above, with a grey-white chin, a whitish breast streaked and spotted dark-brown, white underparts and white stripe along the edges of the secondary wing feathers.<p>Adult weight is approximately 27 g (0.95 oz), making it a mid-sized honeyeater; its body length is generally between 15 and 20 cm (5.9 and 7.9 in), and the wingspan is between 25 and 29 cm (9.8 and 11.4 in). The long pointed wing characterizing Certhionyx variegatus reflects movements which extend over the breadth of the continent.<p>The call of the pied honeyeater has been described as a "mournful whistle, resembling that of the little grassbird (Megalurus gramineus)". During the breeding season it utters a "melancholy piping note".<p>A superficially similar honeyeater is the black honeyeater, (Sugomel nigrum). It has a different call, is smaller, with a finer bill, shorter tail and lacks the bare eye-patch. Males of this species also have a distinctive stripe down the center of the chest and abdomen, while females have plainer wings and less streaking on the breast.

Taxonomie

In 1999, taxonomists had placed pied honeyeater (Certhionyx variegatus), banded honeyeater (Cissomela pectoralis) and black honeyeater (Sugomel nigrum) in the genus Certhionyx; however, revised DNA analysis indicates that these species are not closely related. Christidis and Boles placed the pied honeyeater in the clade Acanthagenys in its own monotypic genus. Genetic analysis indicates the pied honeyeater is the earliest offshoot of a lineage that gave rise to the tui and New Zealand bellbird of New Zealand, and plain honeyeater and marbled honeyeater of New Guinea.

Wissenschaftlicher Name

Certhionyx variegatus

Autorität

Lesson, RP, 1830

Ordnung

Passeriformes

Familie

Honigfresser (Meliphagidae)

Gattung

Certhionyx

Verbreitung und Lebensraum

In the early 1900s, this species was "widely distributed, principally over the southern half of the continent". Data mapping by [Gannon, 1962] shows occurrences primarily across central and western NSW, the arid interior, and the eastern parts of South Australia.<p>Birdlife Australia Atlas project data between 1998 and 2014 indicates that the pied honeyeater is found principally in a band below approximately 18 ° S, which extends roughly from central Queensland, central NSW and central Victoria in the east and across to the Western Australian coastline [Birdlife Australia, 2014].<p>Widely considered as nomadic and categorized by Keast as a "desert nomad", the pied honeyeater has more recently been found to be both sedentary–resident and irruptive, turning up occasionally in numbers far outside its normal range in tandem with heavy rains following drought periods.<p>Movements are poorly understood with no apparent pattern to occurrence or numbers in an area and limited knowledge of actual movements. Occurrences may coincide with the flowering of the emu-bush (Eremophila) [Gannon, 1962][Read, 2008], and perhaps the need to secure minimal breeding requirements via an abundance of insects.Migration and seasonal movements occur, particularly in coastal north-western Australia. "The pied honeyeater is one of the commonest winter visitors, occurring in great numbers immediately after the first heavy rain". There are some instances of residency, while occurrence has been irregularly observed at the periphery of its range.<p>The pied honeyeater appears to be largely independent in the use of free surface water; its distribution within the landscape is less consistent along gradients in relation to distance from water.<p>The pied honeyeater is found in the arid and semi-arid zones, on the sandhills of inland plains, inland ranges, granite outcrops, and also on the coastal sandhills of Western Australia. It frequents shrublands and woodlands with the former dominated by emu bush (Eremophila spp.) and grevilleas, and the latter predominantly by mulga. Habitat may include a scattering of river red gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) along watercourses, and Casuarina and Myoporum along dry watercourses and dry salt-lakes.<p>Pied honeyeaters also inhabit spinifex-dominated grasslands within scattered areas of mulga (Acacia aneura), Casuarina, and bloodwood (Corymbia terminalis).

Zugverhalten

Nomadisch

Verhalten

Zugverhalten: Nomadisch.

Schutzstatus

Bestandstrend: stabil.

Bestandstrend

stabil