Tawny-crowned Honeyeater
Gliciphila melanops
Small honeyeater of coastal heathland in southern Australia. Brownish above, pale below, with white brow, tan crown, and black cheeks that extend down onto the breast, ending in black stippling. Yellow in primaries and salmon underwing evident in flight. Juvenile brownish above, paler below, with yellow in wing. Call a mournful piping whistle, with some tones recalling Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater.
Identification
A species of the honeyeater family, perching birds that feed on insects and nectar. Tawny-crowned honeyeaters are sometimes observed hopping amongst plants on the ground to feed, considered as unusual behaviour amongst its near relations. It resembles the eastern and western spinebills and crescent honeyeater, but is distinguished by a tawny-colored crown above a white line separating the black markings of the face. The upper side of the body is a pale brown, becoming white plumage on the lower parts.<p>They possess a long curved bill that is able to reach nectar at the base of flowers, and in some plants they have become the primary pollinator.
Taxonomy
The tawny-crowned honeyeater was originally described by ornithologist John Latham in 1801 as Certhia melanops. Its specific epithet is derived from the Ancient Greek terms melano- 'black' and ōps 'face'.<p>It was previously classified in the genus Phylidonyris but a recent molecular study has shown it to be more distantly related to members of that genus. It was assigned to a new genus Gliciphila by Gregory Mathews in 1912, and is recognised as the only species of the genus. DNA analysis has shown honeyeaters to be related to the Pardalotidae (pardalotes), Acanthizidae (Australian warblers, scrubwrens, thornbills, etc.), and Maluridae (Australian fairy-wrens) in the large superfamily Meliphagoidea.<p>There are two recognized subspecies of tawny-crowned honeyeater: the nominate Gliciphila melanops melanops and G. melanops chelidonia, an endemic of Tasmania that has a rufous tinge to its plumage.
- Scientific name
- Gliciphila melanops
- Authority
- (Latham, 1801)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Meliphagidae
- Genus
- Gliciphila
Range and habitat
The tawny-crowned honeyeater is found from the North Coast of New South Wales through to the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia, as well as in Victoria and Tasmania. It also occurs in southwest Western Australia from Israelite Bay westwards. Its natural habitat is low shrubland and heath. It has become locally extinct in the urban Sydney area since 1971.
- Migration
- Resident species
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
Fire-bellied Woodpecker
Chloropicus pyrrhogaster
A large, long-billed woodpecker with an olive back, a red rump, a bold facial pattern, and heavily marked underparts with a bright red central belly stripe. The crown and back of the head are black in the female and red in males. Forages alone or in pairs, preferring dead tree trunks where it can excavate for beetle larvae and other insects in lowland rainforest, gallery forest, and plantations. Calls include a sharp “kwip,” a series of similar notes, and a fast whinnying call. Also gives a distinctive drum that lasts about 2 seconds, beginning fast and then slowing. Similar to Bearded and Yellow-crested Woodpeckers, but there is very little overlap in range, and those species lack the red belly patch.
Lewin's Honeyeater
Meliphaga lewinii
A medium-sized olive-gray honeyeater with a pale yellow cheek patch and a relatively stout bill. Cheek patch is often a crescent compared to the circular patch on Graceful Honeyeater and the oval path on Yellow-spotted Honeyeater. Adults have a bluish eye, while the similar Graceful Honeyeater has a blue-gray eye and Yellow-spotted Honeyeater has a brown eye. Listen for the rapid staccato machine-gun call of Lewin’s compared to the loud repeated whistles of the Yellow-spotted Honeyeater and the more simple, single note call of Graceful Honeyeater. Of the three easily confusable species, this is the only one found away from the tropics; it occurs in wetter forests and gardens all along the eastern coast of Australia.
Mountain Thornbill
Acanthiza katherina
Small bird with thin pointed bill found in middle- to high-elevation rainforests in far northern Queensland. Greenish gray above, pale below, with faint streaks on chest, pale eye, and faint pale speckling on gray forecrown. Forages among leaves of forest canopy. Compare Brown Gerygone, which has darker eye and white tail tips.
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