Grey honeyeater
Grey honeyeater | |
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Illustration by Henrik Grönvold
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Passeriformes |
Family: | Meliphagidae |
Genus: | Conopophila |
Species: | C. whitei
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Binomial name | |
Conopophila whitei (North, 1910)
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Synonyms | |
Lacustroica whitei North. |
The grey honeyeater (Conopophila whitei) is a species of bird in the honeyeater family. It is an uncommon and little-known bird, an often overlooked endemic of remote areas in central Australia.
Taxonomy
Currently placed as a species of the genus
The species was found by
The specific epithet whitei honours Alfred Henry Edsworth White, the son of ornithologist
Description
A tiny honeyeater, grey and discreet, with a nondescript colouration that is only faintly marked. The length is 10.5–12 cm (4.1–4.7 in).[4]
The plumage of the upper body is generally cold grey, the lower parts paler, becoming browner until a moult. Tail and flight feathers are a blackish brown, and a slightly darker marking extends across the eye to the bill. The tips of the tail feathers are white, aging to buffish. The bill is relatively short for a honeyeater, slightly down-curved and grey, becoming black toward the tip. There is a pale and indistinct ring of feathers, tinted buff, around the eye.[4][5] The colour of the iris is brown, the legs are steel grey.[5]
Juveniles have a faintly yellowish cast to the thin eye-ring, that almost disappears as they mature, and on the pale grey feathers of the throat. The grey flight feathers of the immature birds have a yellow-green wash.[4]
The grey honeyeater is similar in appearance to the Western gerygone (
Voice
The most common call of the grey honeyeater has been described as a piercing, metallic, quick, double squeak "chirra-wik-chirra-wik",
Distribution and habitat
The grey honeyeater is found in a range extending across the mid-west to the centre of the Australian continent, especially in the Pilbara and Murchison regions of Western Australia, and southern and central Northern Territory.[14] It is rare to uncommon and probably sedentary with some nomadic movement.[4][12] The species is found in semi-arid mulga (Acacia aneura) and similar acacia scrublands.[12] The occurrence of mistletoe may be an important factor in determining its distribution.[4] Some good locations for finding the grey honeyeater are the Olive Pink Botanic Garden, Alice Springs, in the Northern Territory, and Wanjarri Nature Reserve, south of Wiluna, and Tom Price, in Western Australia.[15]
Behaviour
Breeding
The breeding season is August to November, which may extend through to May, if there is summer rain.[12] The nest is a small, frail, untidy cup of fine grass stems, lined with hair and plant down, bound with spider web, hanging from slender twigs in the outer foliage of a mulga shrub.[12][4] A clutch of 1 or 2 eggs, each measuring 17 mm × 13 mm (0.67 in × 0.51 in), is laid.[12] The eggs are swollen oval and slightly glossy white, spotted with reddish-brown.[4] Incubation is probably by both sexes, as is the feeding of nestlings and fledglings.[3]
Feeding
The grey honeyeater is primarily insectivorous, busily gleaning the surface of foliage for lerp and similar insects or hovering to capture flying insects.[3][12] It also feeds on nectar by piercing the deep, tubular flowers of species such as Eremophila, and on the nectar and berries of mistletoe.[12]
Conservation status
The grey honeyeater is classified as
References
- ^ . Retrieved 17 November 2021.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-9870701-0-4.
- ^ a b c d e f Higgins, P., L. Christidis, and H. Ford (2020). "Gray Honeyeater (Conopophila whitei), version 1.0." In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.gryhon1.01
- ^ ISBN 9780732291938.
- ^ a b c d Serventy, D. L.; Whittell, H. M. (1951). A handbook of the birds of Western Australia (with the exception of the Kimberley division) (2nd ed.). Perth: Paterson Brokensha. p. 337.
- ^ a b Whitlock, F. L. (1910). "On the East Murchison. Four months collecting trip". The Emu. 9 (4). Melbourne : Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union: 209–10. Retrieved 16 July 2018.
- ^ Jobling, James A. (2010). "Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird-names". Retrieved 2020-04-28.
- ^ Emu vol. 9. plate 15. April 1, 1910
- ISBN 0909486638.
- ^ Gill, Frank; Donsker, David (eds.). "Honeyeaters v 8.2". www.worldbirdnames.org. IOC World Bird List. Retrieved 15 July 2018.
Grey Honeyeater
- ^ ISBN 067087918-5.
- ^ ISBN 978174021417-9
- ^ "chapman library sound:grey honeyeater". Retrieved 2020-04-28.
- ^ "eBird map:grey honeyeater". Retrieved 2020-04-28.
- ^ "chapman library photos:grey honeyeater". Retrieved 2020-04-28.
External links
Song recordings. "Grey Honeyeater (Conopophila whitei)". www.xeno-canto.org. Xeno-canto Foundation. Retrieved 16 July 2018.