Biology:Yellow-plumed honeyeater
| Yellow-plumed honeyeater | |
|---|---|
| |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Meliphagidae |
| Genus: | Ptilotula |
| Species: | P. ornata
|
| Binomial name | |
| Ptilotula ornata (Gould, 1838)
| |
| Synonyms | |
|
Lichenostomus ornatus | |
The yellow-plumed honeyeater (Ptilotula ornata) is a species of bird in the family Meliphagidae. It is endemic to Australia , where it inhabits temperate forests and Mediterranean-type shrubby vegetation.
The yellow-plumed honeyeater was previously placed in the genus Lichenostomus, but was moved to Ptilotula after a molecular phylogenetic analysis, published in 2011, showed that the original genus was polyphyletic.[2][3]
Description
The yellow-plumed honeyeater is a medium-sized honeyeater with a relatively long, down-curved black bill, a dark face and a distinctive, upswept yellow neck plume.[4] It has an olive-green head, with a faint yellow line under the dark eye, grey-green upperparts, and heavily streaked grey-brown underparts.[4] Young birds have a yellow bill base and eye-ring.[4]
Similar species include purple-gaped honeyeater,[5] grey-fronted honeyeater[4] and fuscous honeyeater.[5][4]
Call
The song is a loud, clear, three-note chier wit chier, often performed before dawn, and by males during display flight.[6]
Distribution
The yellow-plumed honeyeater is endemic to southern mainland Australia, from western New South Wales and Victoria, through South Australia to south-west Western Australia.[4]
Ecology and behaviour
_(8079669037).jpg)
The main habitat type for yellow-plumed honeyeater is mallee.[5] They occupy a broader range of habitat in the west of their range, including dry eucalypt woodland and eucalypt open-forest.[6] They occasionally occur outside their usual habitat, such as in Acacia and Callitris woodland,[6] and seasonally in flowering red ironbark forest, flowering grey box-yellow box woodland.[5]
They occur in sedentary, colonial groups, which may relocate in response to harsh conditions.[6] They are noisy and conspicuous, and will jointly defend nesting or feeding territories, by engaging in communal wing quivering displays.[6]
Diet
Yellow-plumed honeyeater are mainly insectivorous, foraging actively mainly in outer and upper foliage, branches and trunks of eucalypts, and taking insects on the wing.[5] They also feed opportunistically on nectar,[6] including from various mallee eucalypts, yellow gum, grey box, red ironbark, and box mistletoe.[5]
Reproduction
Yellow-plumed honeyeaters build an open, cup-shaped nest suspended by the rim from a thin fork or from foliage of mallee eucalypts and other small shrubs.[4] Nests are made from wool, green grass and spider-webs, and lined with wool, grasses, plant-down and brightly-coloured feathers.[4] Both parents feed the young, sometimes with the assistance of helpers.[4]
Yellow-plumed honeyeater nests are parasitised by fan-tailed cuckoos, pallid cuckoos, Horsfield's bronze-cuckoos and shining bronze-cuckoos.[4]
Conservation actions
Conservation status
The species is listed under the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species as a species of Least Concern.[1]
Protected areas
The yellow-plumed honeyeater occurs in several protected areas, including:
- New South Wales
- * Pulletop Nature Reserve[7]
- South Australia
- * Gluepot Reserve[8]
- Victoria
- * Greater Bendigo National Park[5]
- * Inglewood Nature Conservation Reserve[5]
- * Wychitella Nature Conservation Reserve[5]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 BirdLife International (2016). "Ptilotula ornata". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T22704094A93952661. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22704094A93952661.en. https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22704094/93952661. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
- ↑ Nyári, Á.S.; Joseph, L. (2011). "Systematic dismantlement of Lichenostomus improves the basis for understanding relationships within the honeyeaters (Meliphagidae) and historical development of Australo–Papuan bird communities". Emu 111 (3): 202–211. doi:10.1071/mu10047.
- ↑ Gill, Frank; Donsker, David, eds. "Honeyeaters". World Bird List Version 6.1. International Ornithologists' Union. http://www.worldbirdnames.org/bow/honeyeaters/.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 4.9 "Yellow-plumed Honeyeater". Birdlife Australia. https://www.birdlife.org.au/bird-profile/yellow-plumed-honeyeater.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 5.8 Tzaros, C. (2021) Wildlife of the Box-Ironbark Country. 2nd Edition, CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne, Victoria, ISBN:9781486313150
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 Menkhorst, P., Rogers, D., Clarke, R., Davies, J., Marsack, P., Franklin, K. (2019) The Australian Bird Guide: Revised Edition, CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne, Victoria, ISBN:9781486311934
- ↑ Pulletop Nature Reserve: Plan of management (PDF). Government of New South Wales. December 2005. ISBN 1-74122-081-5. https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/-/media/OEH/Corporate-Site/Documents/Parks-reserves-and-protected-areas/Parks-plans-of-management/pulletop-nature-reserve-plan-of-management-050676.pdf. Retrieved 16 December 2023.
- ↑ "Birdlife Gluepot Reserve Bird List - April 2016 (Alphabetic Order)". Gluepot Reserve. Birdlife Australia. April 2016. https://www.gluepot.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Birdlist-April-2016-Alphabetic.pdf.
External links
- Photos, audio and video of yellow-plumed honeyeater from Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Macaulay Library
- Recording of yellow-plumed honeyeater from Graeme Chapman's sound library
Wikidata ☰ Q27075260 entry
 |  |
