Yellow-plumed honeyeater
Yellow-plumed honeyeater | |
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Scientific classification ![]() | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Passeriformes |
Family: | Meliphagidae |
Genus: | Ptilotula |
Species: | P. ornata
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Binomial name | |
Ptilotula ornata (Gould, 1838)
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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 a 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
The main habitat type for yellow-plumed honeyeater is Mallee woodlands and shrublands.[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 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:
- South Australia
- Victoria
- * Greater Bendigo National Park[5]
- * Inglewood Nature Conservation Reserve[5]
- * Wychitella Nature Conservation Reserve[5]
References
- ^ a b BirdLife International (2016). "Ptilotula ornata". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016: e.T22704094A93952661. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22704094A93952661.en. 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. S2CID 85333285.
- ^ Gill, Frank; Donsker, David (eds.). "Honeyeaters". World Bird List Version 6.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 28 January 2016.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Yellow-plumed Honeyeater". Birdlife Australia. Retrieved 20 July 2022.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Tzaros, C. (2021) Wildlife of the Box-Ironbark Country. 2nd Edition, CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne, Victoria, ISBN 9781486313150
- ^ a b c d e f 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
- ^ "Birdlife Gluepot Reserve Bird List - April 2016 (Alphabetic Order)" (PDF). Gluepot Reserve (PDF). Birdlife Australia. April 2016. Retrieved 20 July 2022.
External links
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- 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 libraryError: "Q27075260" is not a valid Wikidata entity ID.
- Articles with short description
- Short description with empty Wikidata description
- Use dmy dates from July 2022
- Use Australian English from July 2022
- All Wikipedia articles written in Australian English
- IUCN Red List least concern species
- Articles with 'species' microformats
- Taxonbars desynced from Wikidata
- Taxonbar pages requiring a Wikidata item
- Taxonbars with invalid from parameters
- Taxonbars without secondary Wikidata taxon IDs
- Ptilotula
- Birds of South Australia
- Birds described in 1838
- Taxonomy articles created by Polbot