Birds Guide

Honeyeaters
Eastern Spinebill, Acanthorhynchus tenuirostris
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia   Phylum: Chordata   Class: Aves   Order: Passeriformes   Family: Meliphagidae Vigors, 1825
Genera
Anthochaera Acanthagenys Plectorhyncha Philemon Xanthomyzma Entomyzon Manorina Xanthotis Meliphaga Lichenostomus Melithreptus Notiomystis Glycichaera Lichmera Trichodere Grantiella Phylidonyris Ramsayornis Conopophila Acanthorhynchus Certhionyx Myzomela Anthornis Prosthemadera Epthianura Ashbyia Moho

The honeyeaters are a large and diverse family of small to medium sized birds most common in Australia and New Guinea, but also found in New Zealand, the Pacific islands as far east as Hawaii, and the islands to the north and west of New Guinea known as Wallacea. Bali, on the other side of the Wallace Line, has a single species.

Honeyeaters and the closely related Australian chats make up the family Meliphagidae. In total there are 182 species in 42 genera, roughly half of them native to Australia, many of the remainder occupying New Guinea. Like their closest relatives, the Maluridae (Australian wrens), Pardalotidae (pardalotes and thornbills), and Petroicidae (Australian robins), they originated as part of the great corvid radiation in Australia-New Guinea (which were joined in a single landmass until quite recent geological times).

Although honeyeaters look and behave very much like other nectar-feeding passerines around the world (such as the sunbirds and flowerpeckers), they are unrelated, and the similarities are the consequence of convergent evolution.

Unlike the hummingbirds of America, honeyeaters do not have extensive adaptations for hovering flight, though smaller members of the family do hover hummingbird-style to collect nectar from time to time. In general, honeyeaters prefer to flit quickly from perch to perch in the outer foliage, stretching up or sideways or hanging upside down at need. All genera have a highly developed brush-tipped tongue, longer in some species than others, frayed and fringed with bristles which soak up liquids readily. The tongue is flicked rapidly and repeatedly into a flower, the upper mandible then compressing any liquid out when the bill is closed.

The extent of the evolutionary partnership between honeyeaters and Australasian flowering plants is unknown, but probably substantial. A great many Australian plants are fertilised by honeyeaters, particularly the Proteacae, Myrtaceae, and Epacridacae. It is known that the honeyeaters are important in New Zealand as well, and assumed that the same applies in other areas.

In addition to nectar, all or nearly all honeyeaters take insects and other small creatures, usually by hawking, sometimes by gleaning. A few of the larger species, notably the White-eared Honeyeater, and the Strong-billed Honeyeater of Tasmania, probe under bark for insects and other morsels. Many species supplement their diets with a little fruit, and a small number eat considerable amounts of fruit, particularly in tropical rainforests and, oddly, in semi-arid scrubland. The Painted Honeyeater is a mistletoe specialist. Most, however, exist on a diet of nectar supplemented by varing quantities of insects. In general, the honeyeaters with long, fine bills are more nectarivous, the shorter-billed species less so, but even specialised nectar eaters like the spinebills take extra insects to add protein to their diet when they are breeding.

The movements of honeyeaters are poorly understood. Most are at least partially mobile but many movements seem to be local, possibly between favourite haunts as the conditions change. Fluctuations in local abundance are common, but the small number of definitely migratory honeyeater species aside, the reasons are yet to be discovered. Many follow the flowering of favourite food plants. Arid zone species appear to travel further and less predictably than those of the more fertile areas. It seems probable that no single explanation will emerge: the general rule for honeyeater movements is that there is no general rule.

The genus Apalopteron (Bonin Honeyeater), formerly treated in the Meliphagidae, has recently been transferred to the Zosteropidae on genetic evidence.

A new species of honeyeater, not yet described but previously called "Smoky Honeyeater", has been discovered in December 2005 in the Foja Mountains of Papua, Indonesia.

Species of Meliphagidae (Part of the Meliphagoidea superfamily)

• Red Wattlebird, Anthochaera carunculata
  Yellow Wattlebird, Anthochaera paradoxa
  Little Wattlebird, Anthochaera chrysoptera
  Western Wattlebird, Anthochaera lunulata
  Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater, Acanthagenys rufogularis
  Striped Honeyeater, Plectorhyncha lanceolata
  Helmeted Friarbird, Philemon buceroides
  Silver-crowned Friarbird, Philemon argenticeps
  Noisy Friarbird, Philemon corniculatus
  Little Friarbird, Philemon citreogularis
  Regent Honeyeater, Xanthomyza phrygia
  Blue-faced Honeyeater, Entomyzon cyanotis
  Bell Miner, Manorina melanophrys
  Noisy Miner, Manorina melanocephala
  Yellow-throated Miner, Manorina flavigula
  Black-eared Miner, Manorina melanotis
  Macleay's Honeyeater, Xanthotis macleayana
  Tawny-breasted Honeyeater, Xanthotis flaviventer
  Lewin's Honeyeater, Meliphaga lewinii
  Yellow-spotted Honeyeater, Meliphaga notata
  Graceful Honeyeater, Meliphaga gracilis
  White-lined Honeyeater, Meliphaga albilineata
  Bridled Honeyeater, Lichenostomus frenatus
  Eungella Honeyeater, Lichenostomus hindwoodi
  Yellow-faced Honeyeater, Lichenostomus chrysops
  Singing Honeyeater, Lichenostomus virescens
  Varied Honeyeater, Lichenostomus versicolor
  Mangrove Honeyeater, Lichenostomus fasciogularis
  White-gaped Honeyeater, Lichenostomus unicolor
  Yellow Honeyeater, Lichenostomus flavus
  White-eared Honeyeater, Lichenostomus leucotis
  Yellow-throated Honeyeater, Lichenostomus flavicollis
  Yellow-tufted Honeyeater, Lichenostomus melanops
  Purple-gaped Honeyeater, Lichenostomus cratitius
  Grey-headed Honeyeater, Lichenostomus keartlandi
  Yellow-plumed Honeyeater, Lichenostomus ornatus
  Grey-fronted Honeyeater, Lichenostomus plumulus
  Fuscous Honeyeater, Lichenostomus fuscus
  Yellow-tinted Honeyeater, Lichenostomus flavescens
  White-plumed Honeyeater, Lichenostomus penicillatus
  Smoky Honeyeater, Melipotes fumigatus [1]
  Black-chinned Honeyeater, Melithreptus gularis
  Strong-billed Honeyeater, Melithreptus validirostris
  Brown-headed Honeyeater, Melithreptus brevirostris
  White-throated Honeyeater, Melithreptus albogularis
  White-naped Honeyeater, Melithreptus lunatus
  Black-headed Honeyeater, Melithreptus affinis
  Stitchbird, Notiomystis cincta
  Green-backed Honeyeater, Glycichaera fallax
  Brown Honeyeater, Lichmera indistincta
  White-streaked Honeyeater, Trichodere cockerelli
  Painted Honeyeater, Grantiella picta
  Giant Honeyeater, Gymnomyza viridis
  Mao, Gymnomyza samoensis
  Crow Honeyeater, Gymnomyza aubryana
  Crescent Honeyeater, Phylidonyris pyrrhoptera
  New Holland Honeyeater, Phylidonyris novaehollandiae
  White-cheeked Honeyeater, Phylidonyris nigra
  White-fronted Honeyeater, Phylidonyris albifrons
  Tawny-crowned Honeyeater, Phylidonyris melanops
  Brown-backed Honeyeater, Ramsayornis modestus
  Bar-breasted Honeyeater, Ramsayornis fasciatus
  Rufous-banded Honeyeater, Conopophila albogularis
  Rufous-throated Honeyeater, Conopophila rufogularis
  Grey Honeyeater, Conopophila whitei
  Eastern Spinebill, Acanthorhynchus tenuirostris
  Western Spinebill, Acanthorhynchus superciliosus
  Banded Honeyeater, Certhionyx pectoralis
  Black Honeyeater, Certhionyx niger
  Pied Honeyeater, Certhionyx variegatus
  Dusky Honeyeater, Myzomela obscura
  Red-headed Honeyeater, Myzomela erythrocephala
  Cardinal Honeyeater, Myzomela cardinalis
  Scarlet Honeyeater, Myzomela sanguinolenta
  New Zealand Bellbird, Anthornis melanura
  Tui, Prosthemadera novaeseelandiae
  Crimson Chat, Epthianura tricolor
  Orange Chat, Epthianura aurifrons
  Yellow Chat, Epthianura crocea
  White-fronted Chat, Epthianura albifrons
  Gibberbird, Ashbyia lovensis

External links

• Honeyeater videos on the Internet Bird Collection