| White-naped Honeyeater | |
|---|---|
| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Meliphagidae |
| Genus: | Melithreptus |
| Species: | M. lunatus |
| Binomial name | |
| Melithreptus lunatus (Vieillot, 1802) |
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The White-naped Honeyeater Melithreptus lunatus is a passerine bird of the Honeyeater family Meliphagidae native to eastern Australia. Birds from southwestern Australia have been shown to be a distinct species, the Western White-naped Honeyeater, and the eastern birds more closely related to the Black-headed Honeyeater of Tasmania. One of several similar species of black-headed honeyeaters in the genus Melithreptus, it dwells in dry sclerophyll eucalypt woodland. Its diet consists of nectar from various flowers and insects.
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The White-naped Honeyeater was originally described as Certhia lunata by French ornithologist Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot in 1802.[1] The specific name is derived from the Latin luna, meaning "moon"; this refers to its crescent-shaped white marking on its nape. It is a member of the genus Melithreptus with several species, of similar size and (apart from the Brown-headed Honeyeater) black-headed appearance, in the honeyeater family Meliphagidae. The next closest relative outside the genus is the much larger but similarly marked Blue-faced Honeyeater.[2] More recently, DNA analysis has shown honeyeaters to be related to the Pardalotidae (pardalotes), Acanthizidae (Australian warblers, scrubwrens, thornbills, etc.), and the Maluridae (Australian fairy-wrens) in a large Meliphagoidea superfamily.[3]
The Western White-naped Honeyeater from southwest Western Australia, this was initially described as a separate species by John Gould in 1844,[4] before being reclassified as a subspecies of the white-naped for many years. However, a molecular study published in 2010 showed that it had diverged before the split of populations in eastern Australia into the White-naped and Black-headed Honeyeaters.[5]
A mid-sized honeyeater at 13–15 cm (5–6 in) in length, it is olive green above and white below, with a black head, nape and throat and a red patch over the eye and a white crescent-shaped patch on the nape, thinner than other species. Juveniles have brownish crowns and an orange base of bill. Its call is a mjerp mjerp.[6]
It is found in forest. Its diet is principally nectar from a variety of flowers supplemented by insects and various other invertebrates.
White-naped honeyeaters may nest from July to December, breeding once or twice during this time. The nest is a thick-walled bowl of grasses and bits of bark in the fork of a tall tree, usually a eucalypt. Two or three eggs are laid, 18 x 14 mm and shiny buff-pink sparsely spotted with red-brown.[7]