Moonstripe honey connoisseurs

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Moonstripe honey connoisseurs
Moonstripe Honey Gourmet (Melithreptus lunatus)

Moonstripe Honey Gourmet ( Melithreptus lunatus )

Systematics
Order : Passerines (Passeriformes)
Subordination : Songbirds (passeri)
Superfamily : Meliphagoidea
Family : Honeyeater (Meliphagidae)
Genre : Melithreptus
Type : Moonstripe honey connoisseurs
Scientific name
Melithreptus lunatus
( Vieillot , 1802)
Subspecies Melithreptus lunatus chloropsis

The moon-streak honey -eater ( Melithreptus lunatus ), also known as the white-naped honey-eater , is a medium-sized member of the honey-eater family .

Appearance

The 13 to 15 cm tall bird has a white lower abdomen plumage, the head and the beak are colored black. The bird also has an elongated, white stripe on the back of the head. In the nominate form , the bare skin over the eyes is conspicuously orange-red. The wings and tail are brownish, darker to black towards the end. The back plumage changes from olive green to brown. The legs are brownish or darker in color.

Subspecies

Two subspecies have been described of this species :

  • Melithreptus lunatus chloropsis Gould , 1848 - in southwest Western Australia . The bare skin over the eyes is bluish-cream in color, the dorsal plumage is yellowish in color.
  • Melithreptus lunatus lunatus - in eastern and southeastern Australia . The bare skin over the eyes is orange-red, the dorsal plumage is olive green.

In the IOC World Bird List, Melithreptus chloropsis, however, has the status of its own species. This classification is based on an article by Alicia Toon , Jane Margaret Hughes and Leo Joseph , who came to the conclusion in an article from 2010 using multilocus sequence typing that both have the status of a species of their own.

distribution

The moon-streak honeyeater is found in eucalyptus groves and woodlands as well as in city parks in east, southeast and southwest Australia.

Way of life

The birds look for insects, spiders or nectar in pairs or in small groups, up to 60 animals, in the treetops or on the bark of tall trees. The birds are mostly true to their location all year round, with the exception of northern populations, which migrate south in winter.

Brood

The breeding takes place from June to January. The nest is made from pieces of bark, blades of grass, other plant fibers and spider silk and is attached to a fork in a high tree or bush and camouflaged from enemies with leaves from the area. The female lays her 2–4 white-brown or black-spotted eggs in it. The breeding period is 13–17 days, after which the young birds remain in the nest for 14–16 days. Both parent birds take part in the brood care.

Danger

Information on the size of the population is not known, but the species is considered common. The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) classifies the moon streak honey gourmet as Least Concern due to its very large distribution area and the apparently stable population .

literature

  • Christopher M. Perrins (Ed.): The FSVO encyclopedia birds of the world. Translated from the English by Einhard Bezzel. BLV, Munich / Vienna / Zurich 2004, ISBN 978-3-405-16682-3 , 467, 469 (title of the original English edition: The New Encyclopedia Of Birds. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2003).
  • Christopher M. Perrins: The Great Encyclopedia of Birds . Orbis Verlag, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-572-00810-7 , pp. 314 and 316 .
  • Jiří Felix (eds.), Alena Čepická, Jaromír Knotek, Libuše Knotková: Wildlife of Australia and the Antarctic. Translated from the Czech by Ingeborg Šestáková. Arita, Prague 1986, p. 69.
  • Alicia Toon, Jane Margaret Hughes, Leo Joseph: Multilocus analysis of honeyeaters (Aves: Meliphagidae) highlights spatio-temporal heterogeneity in the influence of biogeographic barriers in the Australian monsoonal zone . In: Molecular Ecology . tape 19 , no. 14 , 2010, p. 2980-2994 , doi : 10.1111 / j.1365-294X.2010.04730.x .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c R. Schodde, IJ Mason: Directory of Australian Birds: Passerines: Passerines. CSIRO, 1999.
  2. ^ Honeyeaters in IOC World Bird List
  3. ↑ Alicia Toon et al. a. (2010)

Web links

Commons : Mondstreif-Honigschmecker ( Melithreptus lunatus )  - Collection of images, videos and audio files