Scarlet myzomela

Scarlet myzomela
Male
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Meliphagidae
Genus: Myzomela
Species: M. sanguinolenta
Binomial name
Myzomela sanguinolenta
(Latham, 1801)

The scarlet myzomela or scarlet honeyeater (Myzomela sanguinolenta) is a small passerine bird of the honeyeater family Meliphagidae native to the east coast of Australia, from Cape York in the far north to Gippsland in Victoria. It was described by English ornithologist John Latham in 1801. At 9 to 11 centimetres (3.5 to 4.3 in) long, it is the smallest honeyeater in Australia. It has a short tail and relatively long down-curved bill. It is sexually dimorphic; the male is a striking bright red with black wings, while the female is entirely brown. It is more vocal than most honeyeaters, and a variety of calls have been recorded, including a bell-like tinkling.

Its natural habitat is forest, where it forages mainly in the upper tree canopy. It is omnivorous, feeding on insects as well as nectar. Up to three broods may be laid over the course of a breeding season. The female lays two or rarely three flecked white eggs in a 5 centimetres (2 in) diameter cup-shaped nest high in a tree. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has assessed it as being of least concern on account of its large range and apparently stable population.

Taxonomy

The scarlet myzomela was depicted in three paintings in a set of early illustrations known as the Watling drawings, done in the first years of settlement of Sydney between 1788 and 1794. Based on these, English ornithologist John Latham described it as three separate species in 1801. He based the description of Certhia sanguinolenta on an immature male moulting into adult plumage with incomplete red colouration,[2][3] calling it the sanguineous creeper. In the same publication he described Certhia dibapha, the cochineal creeper, and C. erythropygia, the red-rumped creeper.[4] John Gould determined these to be the one species in 1843, adopting the first-written binomial name as the valid one and relegating the others to synonymy,[3][5] though the name Myzomela dibapha was occasionally used,[6] particularly in New Caledonia.[3] Stephens called it Meliphaga sanguinea in 1826 as a replacement name for Latham's Certhia sanguinolenta.[5] In 1990, Ian McAllan proposed that the first drawing did not confirm the species identity and proposed the name Myzomela dibapha to hence be the oldest validly published name,[7] however Richard Schodde countered in 1992 that the drawing of an immature male could not be any other species and so M. sanguinolenta should stand. He added that the alternative proposed name had not been in use since the 1850s.[3] The Wakolo myzomela, Sulawesi myzomela, Banda myzomela, and New Caledonian myzomela were all previously considered to be conspecific with the scarlet myzomela.[6]

This species was known as the scarlet honeyeater in Australia and scarlet myzomela elsewhere,[8] the latter name being adopted as the official name by the International Ornithological Committee (IOC). Gould used Latham's name of sanguineous honeyeater in the 19th century.[9] Other common names are soldier-bird (wearing a red coat) and blood-bird.[8] An early colonial name was little soldier.[10]

A 2004 genetic study of nuclear and mitochondrial DNA of honeyeaters found it to be most closely related to the cardinal myzomela, with their common ancestor diverging from a lineage that led to the red-headed myzomela, although only five of the thirty members of the genus Myzomela were analysed.[11] A 2017 genetic study using both mitochondrial and nuclear DNA suggests that the ancestor of the scarlet myzomela diverged from that of the Banda myzomela around 2 million years ago, however the relationships of many species within the genus is uncertain.[12] Molecular 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.[13]

Description

Female scarlet myzomela

The scarlet myzomela is a distinctive small honeyeater with a compact body, short tail and relatively long down-curved black bill and dark brown iris. It is between 9 and 11 centimetres (3.5 and 4.3 in) long, with an average wingspan of 18 centimetres (7.1 in) and a weight of 8 grams (0.28 oz).[14] It has relatively long wings for its size; when the wings are folded, the longest primaries reach over half the length of the tail.[15] It exhibits sexual dimorphism, with the male much more brightly coloured than the female.[14] The adult male has a bright scarlet head, nape and upper breast, with a narrow black stripe from beak to eye and a thin black eye-ring. The red plumage extends as a central stripe down the back and rump. On its breast, the red becomes more mottled with grey towards the belly and flanks, which are grey-white.[14] The sides of the breast are brown-black.[16] The mantle and scapulars are black, the upperwing a dull black, with white edges to the secondary covert feathers. The tail is black above and dark grey below. The underwing is white with a dark grey trailing edge and tip.[14] The female has a brown head and neck, darker on top and lighter and greyer on the sides, with a pale grey-brown throat and chin. It sometimes has pinkish or reddish patches on the forehead, throat and cheeks. The upperparts are brown, sometimes with scarlet patches on the uppertail coverts. The tail is blackish-brown with yellow fringes to all but the central pair of retrices. The wings are blackish-brown.[14] The female has a yellowish or brownish base to its black bill. Moulting takes place over spring and summer.[17]

Young birds have juvenile plumage when they leave the nest;[16] they are similar to females though have more reddish brown upperparts, and light brown rump and uppertail coverts.[14] Immature males, after moulting from juvenile plumage, have patches or red feathers coming though the juvenile brown plumage.[17] Immature females are very difficult to distinguish from juveniles or adult females.[15] Both sexes attain adult plumage after two moults. It is unknown whether its plumage changes with moults after the scarlet myzomela attains adulthood.[16]

The scarlet myzomela is more commonly heard than seen, and has a wider repertoire of notes in its calls than most honeyeaters. The male is more vocal than the female. The main call is a tuneful tinkling call made up of sets of six notes that rise or fall in tone. It has been likened to cork being rubbed on glass. The female chirps as it hops around and upon meeting and playing with the male, and it can also make a squeaking call. Both sexes make a short chiew-chiew as a contact call.[18]

Males could be mistaken for the similar looking red-headed myzomela in eastern Cape York Peninsula in northern Queensland where their ranges overlap, though the latter's red colouration is restricted to the head and is sharply demarcated. The latter species also lives in mangroves rather than woodlands.[19] The dusky myzomela resembles the female scarlet myzomela, but is larger with a longer bill and tail, and has much darker brown plumage and lacks the pink tinge to the face and throat.[20]

Distribution and habitat

The scarlet myzomela is found from Cooktown in Far North Queensland down the east coast to Mitchell River National Park in Gippsland, Victoria. It is rarer south of the Hacking River in New South Wales. Its range extends inland to Charters Towers, Carnarvon Gorge and Inglewood in Queensland, and the Warrumbungles in New South Wales. It is a rare vagrant to Melbourne.[21]

The species' movements are not well known, but appear to be migratory in the southern part of its range and more sedentary in the north.[22] Populations of scarlet myzomelas move northwards up a portion of the Australian east coast for winter.[23] Nomadic movements of populations, generally following flowering of preferred food plants, also occurs. Population numbers have been reported as fluctuating in some areas, with local movements possibly related to the flowering of preferred food plants.[22] Local irruptions have occurred in Sydney in 1902 (during a drought), 1981, 1991 (both in northwestern Sydney) and 1994 (centred on Lane Cove River valley), in Nowra in 1980, across southern Victoria in 1985, and in the Eurobodalla district in 1991 and 1993.[22] A field study in Mangerton over 18 years found that scarlet myzomelas arrived in the area in early Spring (August) and left by November, though were entirely absent in three separate years.[24] The maximum age recorded from banding has been just over 10 years, in a bird caught south of Mount Cotton in Queensland.[25]

Its habitat is dry sclerophyll forest and woodland, generally with eucalypts as the dominant trees and where there is little understory. Scarlet myzomelas are encountered alone, in pairs, or small troops, sometimes with other honeyeaters in the canopy of trees in flower.[26]

Behaviour

The scarlet myzomela is territorial, with males advertising their territories by singing from the tops of trees. They compete with members of the same species, and are usually driven away from some feeding areas by hungry larger honeyeaters, such as Lewin's, New Holland, white-naped, brown honeyeaters, eastern spinebills and noisy friarbirds.[27] Breeding New Holland honeyeaters drive off scarlet myzomelas.[28]

Feeding

The scarlet myzomela is arboreal, foraging in the crowns of trees, darting from flower to flower, probing for nectar with its long curved bill. It sometimes hovers in front of flowers while feeding.[26] Trees visited include turpentine (Syncarpia glomulifera), paperbarks (Melaleuca spp.) and banksias. Insects eaten include beetles, flies, bugs and caterpillars.[27] It is omnivorous, and also feeds on insects as well as nectar, sallying for flying insects in the canopy.[26]

Breeding

Breeding season is from winter through to summer, generally beginning around July or August and winding up in January. There have been odd records of nesting in April or May.[18] A pair generally raises one or two broods a year. Nest failures may lead to a third brood, with females able to lay eggs around three weeks after the previous young have fledged.[16] The nest consists of a tiny cup of shredded bark with spider web as binding, high up in tree canopy, or even mistletoe.[29] Trees with dense foliage, such as lillypilly (Syzygium smithii), Pittosporum species, turpentine (Syncarpia glomulifera), mangroves or species of paperbark, eucalypts or wattles are more often chosen as nesting sites.[18]

The nest is around 5 centimetres (2.0 in) in diameter, and takes around 8 days to build before eggs are laid in it. The clutch size is mostly two but occasionally three eggs, with them being laid one day apart. Measuring 16 millimetres (0.63 in) long and 12.1 millimetres (0.48 in) wide,[16] the small eggs are white with the larger end flecked with dull red-brown or grey-purple.[30] Eggs are laid a day apart, and the female is thought to incubate the eggs alone.[16] The young are born naked, but are soon covered in down. They spend 11–12 days in the nest before fledging. Both parents feed their young.[16]

Conservation status

The scarlet myzomela is listed as being of least concern by the IUCN, on account of its large range (1,960,000 square km) and stable population, with no evidence of any significant decline.[1]

Aviculture

Scarlet myzomelas are rarely seen in aviculture, though have been kept by enthusiasts in Sydney. As all honeyeaters are territorial, they tend to be aggressive in mixed species aviaries.[31] Various State regulations govern the keeping of the species, for instance, in South Australia a Specialist Licence is required, while in New South Wales a Class B2 (Advanced Bird) licence is required. N.S.W. applicants must have at least 2 year's experience keeping birds, and be able to demonstrate that they can provide the appropriate care and housing for the species they wish to obtain.[32]

References

  1. 1 2 BirdLife International (2012). "Myzomela sanguinolenta". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Archived from the original on 2013-12-02. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
  2. ↑ Natural History Museum. ""Sanguineous Creeper" - Image 258 of 484". First Fleet artwork collection. South Kensington, United Kingdom: The Trustees of the Natural History Museum. Retrieved 8 August 2017.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Schodde, Richard (1992). "Towards stablizing the nomenclature of Australian birds: neotypification of Myzomela sanguinolenta (Latham, 1801) Microeca fascinans (Latham, 1801) and Microeca leucophaea (Latham, 1801)". Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club. 112: 185-90 [187].
  4. ↑ Latham, John (1801). Supplementum indicis ornithologici sive systematis ornithologiae (in Latin). London: Leigh & Sotheby. p. xxxvii.
  5. 1 2 Australian Biological Resources Study (30 August 2011). "Subspecies Myzomela (Myzomela) sanguinolenta sanguinolenta (Latham, 1801)". Australian Faunal Directory. Canberra, Australian Capital Territory: Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, Australian Government. Retrieved 2 March 2017.
  6. 1 2 Short, L. L.; Horne, J. F. M. "Scarlet Myzomela (Myzomela sanguinolenta)". In del Hoyo, J.; Elliott, A.; Sargatal, J.; Christie, D. A.; de Juana, E. Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Barcelona: Lynx Edicions.
  7. ↑ McAllan, Ian A. W. (1990). "The cochineal creeper and the fascinating grosbeak: a re-examination of some names of John Latham". Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club. 110: 153–59.
  8. 1 2 Gray, Jeannie; Fraser, Ian (2013). Australian Bird Names: A Complete Guide. Collingwood, Victoria: Csiro Publishing. p. 209. ISBN 978-0-643-10471-6.
  9. ↑ Gould, John (1865). Handbook to The birds of Australia, Volume 1. self. p. 555.
  10. ↑ Forbes, William Alexander (1879). "A synopsis of the Meliphaginae, Genus Myzomela, with Descriptions of two new Species". Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London: 256–78 [259].
  11. ↑ Driskell, Amy C.; Christidis, Les (2004). "Phylogeny and evolution of the Australo-Papuan honeyeaters (Passeriformes, Meliphagidae)". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 31 (3): 943–60. PMID 15120392. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2003.10.017.
  12. ↑ Marki, Petter Z.; Jønsson, Knud A., Irestedt, Martin; Nguyen, Jacqueline M.T.; Rahbek, Carsten; Fjeldså, Jon (2017). "Supermatrix phylogeny and biogeography of the Australasian Meliphagides radiation (Aves: Passeriformes)". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 107: 516–29. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2016.12.021.
  13. ↑ Barker, F. Keith; Cibois, Alice; Schikler, Peter; Feinstein, Julie; Cracraft, Joel (2004). "Phylogeny and diversification of the largest avian radiation" (PDF). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA. 101 (30): 11040–45. PMC 503738 Freely accessible. PMID 15263073. doi:10.1073/pnas.0401892101.
  14. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Higgins 2001, p. 1165.
  15. 1 2 Higgins 2001, p. 1172.
  16. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Higgins 2001, p. 1170.
  17. 1 2 Higgins 2001, p. 1171.
  18. 1 2 3 Higgins 2001, p. 1169.
  19. ↑ Higgins 2001, p. 1159.
  20. ↑ Higgins 2001, p. 1165-66.
  21. ↑ Higgins 2001, p. 1166-67.
  22. 1 2 3 Higgins 2001, p. 1167.
  23. ↑ Griffioen, Peter A; Clarke, Michael F. (2002). "Large-scale bird-movement patterns evident in eastern Australian atlas data". Emu. 102 (1): 99–125. doi:10.1071/MU01024.
  24. ↑ Wood, K.A. (2008). "Patterns of Abundance and Movement of the Scarlet Honeyeater and Yellow-faced Honeyeater at Mangerton, a Suburb of Wollongong, New South Wales". Australian Field Ornithology. 25 (2): 87–95. ISSN 1448-0107.
  25. ↑ Australian Bird & Bat Banding Scheme (ABBBS) (2017). "ABBBS Database Search: Myzomela erythrocephala (Red-headed Honeyeater)". Bird and bat banding database. Australian Government Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts. Retrieved 25 February 2017.
  26. 1 2 3 Higgins 2001, p. 1166.
  27. 1 2 Higgins 2001, p. 1168.
  28. ↑ McFarland, David C. (1986). "Breeding Behaviour of the New Holland Honeyeater Phylidonyris Novaehollandiae". Emu. 86 (3): 161–67. doi:10.1071/MU9860161.
  29. ↑ Cooney, Stuart; Watson, David; Young, John (2006). "Mistletoe nesting in Australian birds: a review". Emu. 106 (1): 1–12. doi:10.1071/MU04018.
  30. ↑ Beruldsen, Gordon (2003). Australian Birds: Their Nests and Eggs. Kenmore Hills, Qld: self. p. 329. ISBN 0-646-42798-9.
  31. ↑ Shephard, Mark (1989). Aviculture in Australia: Keeping and Breeding Aviary Birds. Prahran, Victoria: Black Cockatoo Press. p. 241. ISBN 0-9588106-0-5.
  32. ↑ Office of Environment and Heritage (National Parks and Wildlife Service). (28 June 2017). "Bird keeper licences". NSW Government. Archived from the original on 2017-08-07. Retrieved 7 August 2017.

Cited text

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Myzomela sanguinolenta.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.