Yellow-tufted Honeyeater | |
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Conservation status | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Passeriformes |
Family: | Meliphagidae |
Genus: | Lichenostomus |
Species: | L. melanops |
Binomial name | |
Lichenostomus melanops Latham, 1802 |
The Yellow-tufted Honeyeater (Lichenostomus melanops) is a passerine bird found in the south-east ranges of Australia from south-east Queensland through eastern New South Wales and across Victoria into the tip of Southeastern South Australia. A predominantly black and yellow honeyeater, it is split into three subspecies.
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It was initially described by ornithologist John Latham in 1802 and given several names, initially Muscicapa auricomis and later Turdus melanops.[1] The latter name was retained as a nomen protectum and the former a nomen oblitum as the epithet melanops has been used consistently for over a century. It belongs to the honeyeater family Meliphagidae. More recently, DNA analysis has shown honeyeaters to be related to the Pardalotidae, and the Petroicidae (Australian robins) in a large corvid superfamily; some researchers considering all these families in a broadly defined Corvidae.
Four races are recognised:
It is 17–23 cm long, with females usually smaller, and has a bright yellow forehead, crown and throat, a black mask and a yellow ear and forehead tuft. The back is olive-green and underparts more olive-yellow.[4]
The Helmeted Honeyeater subspecies is largely restricted to dense vegetation along riverbanks, dominated by the Mountain Swamp Gum (Eucalyptus camphora) with a dense understorey of sedges and tussock grasses.[5]
Yellow-tufted Honeyeaters, as a species, are not listed as threatened on the Australian Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 or on any state-based legislation. However, at the subspecies level, the Helmeted Honeyeater (L. m. cassidix) is considered to be a threatened species:
Food includes lerps and other invertebrates, as well as nectar from eucalypts and other flowers.[2]
Breeding takes place between July and January, with one or two broods each season. The nest is a cup-shaped structure of dried grasses, bits of bark and other plant material usually in a fork of a tree 3–4 m (10–12 ft) above the ground. Two or three eggs are laid, pinkish in colour blotched with pale reddish- or buff-brown.[9]