Where does brown Honeyeater usually live?
Where does brown Honeyeater usually live?
The brown honeyeater is found in a wide range of wooded habitats, and is widespread across Australia. The nominate race ranges across a broad band from Newcastle on the New South Wales coast north and west to Queensland and the Top End to southwestern Western Australia. It is rarely seen in Sydney, where populations have declined since the late 1950s, though it is being recorded in suitable habitats, such as Homebush Bay and Kurnell in small numbers, and is a vagrant to the Illawarra region. It is rare in South Australia, and not present in Victoria and Tasmania. Population densities range from 2.3 birds per 1 hectare (2.5 acres) in the Kakadu National Park, to 0.26 birds per hectare in Wellard in Western Australia. L. i. ocularis is found in New Guinea, the Torres Strait Islands, and Cape York intergrading with the nominate race along the Gulf of Carpentaria river system. L. i. melvillensis inhabits the Tiwi Islands, while L. i. limbata is found in Bali and the Lesser Sundas, and L. i. nupta on the Aru Islands. The brown honeyeater is seasonally nomadic across its local area in response to flowering food plants. For example, there are marked increases in numbers in Toowoomba in southeast Queensland during winter, and in the Northern Territory the range contracts during the dry season. It is commonly found among mangroves in coastal areas including black mangroves (Rhizophora mucronata). It is often in woodlands that merge into the mangroves, such as those dominated by Banksia, Melaleuca or Callistemon, and widespread in sclerophyll forests and eucalypt woodlands. In the arid and semi-arid inland of Australia, it is most often recorded in Acacia, Grevillea and Hakea shrubland along watercourses, and at bores, springs, and drainage lines. It visits flowering shrubs in parks and gardens, and occurs in remnant patches of trees on travelling stock routes.