Yellow-tufted Honeyeater
A species of Purple-gaped and Yellow-tufted Honeyeaters Scientific name : Lichenostomus melanops Genus : Purple-gaped and Yellow-tufted Honeyeaters
Yellow-tufted Honeyeater, A species of Purple-gaped and Yellow-tufted Honeyeaters
Botanical name: Lichenostomus melanops
Genus: Purple-gaped and Yellow-tufted Honeyeaters
Content
Description General Info
Photo By Lip Kee , used under CC-BY-SA-2.0 /Cropped and compressed from original
Description
The yellow-tufted honeyeater is 17–23 cm (6.7–9.1 in) long, with females usually smaller. It has a bright yellow forehead, crown and throat, a glossy black mask and bright golden ear-tufts. The back is olive-green to olive-brown on wings and tail, and the underparts are more olive-yellow. The bill and gape are black, eyes brown, and legs grey-brown.
Size
21 cm
Nest Placement
Cavity
Feeding Habits
Yellow-tufted Honeyeater mainly eats arthropods, including insects and spiders, nectar, and sap from eucalypts. Yellow-tufted Honeyeater actively forages on tree-trunks and limbs and catches insects mid-flight. Unique to yellow-tufted Honeyeater is consuming lerps and honeydew, highlighting its specialized diet.
Habitat
The yellow-tufted Honeyeater primarily occupies dry open sclerophyll forests and woodlands, with a particular affinity for eucalypt-dominated landscapes. These habitats include a variety of eucalypt trees such as box-ironbark, gum, and peppermint; and are often accompanied by a dense shrubby underlayer. Yellow-tufted Honeyeater is also found in riparian zones and ecosystems adjacent to swamplands, migrating seasonally to other wooded environments or heathlands.
Dite type
Nectivorous
General Info
Feeding Habits
Bird food type
Behavior
Yellow-tufted honeyeaters are a noisy, active species in colonies from a few up to a hundred. It aggressively defends territories around flowering trees. It has a great variety of calls from a warbled "tui-t-tui-t-tui", a whistled "wheit-wheit", a sharp "querk" to a harsh contact-call "yip" or "chop-chop".
Distribution Area
The yellow-tufted honeyeater occurs from south-east Queensland through eastern New South Wales and across Victoria. Its preferred habitats are dry open sclerophyll forests and woodlands dominated by eucalypts with shrubby undergrowth, as well as mallee, brigalow and cypress-pine (Callitris). The helmeted honeyeater subspecies is largely restricted to dense vegetation along riverbanks, dominated by the mountain swamp gum (Eucalyptus camphora) with a dense understorey of woolly tea-tree (Leptospermum lanigerum), scented paperbark (Melaleuca squarrosa), saw-sedge (Gahnia), ferns and tussock grasses.
Species Status
Yellow-tufted honeyeaters, as a species, are not listed as threatened on the Australian Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 or on any state-based legislation. However, at the subspecies level, the helmeted honeyeater (L. m. cassidix) is considered to be threatened: This subspecies is listed as endangered on the Australian Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. This subspecies is listed as threatened on the Victorian Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act (1988). Under this Act, an Action Statement for the recovery and future management of this species has been prepared. On the 2007 advisory list of threatened vertebrate fauna in Victoria, the helmeted honeyeater is listed as critically endangered.
Photo By Lip Kee , used under CC-BY-SA-2.0 /Cropped and compressed from original
Scientific Classification
Phylum
Chordates Class
Birds Order
Perching birds Family
Honeyeaters Species
Yellow-tufted Honeyeater