Yellow-plumed honeyeater

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.

Yellow-plumed honeyeater
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Meliphagidae
Genus: Ptilotula
Species:
P. ornata
Binomial name
Ptilotula ornata
(Gould, 1838)
Synonyms

Lichenostomus ornatus

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
Yellow-plumed honeyeater in eucalypt canopy

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:

  • South Australia
* Gluepot Reserve[7]
  • Victoria
* Greater Bendigo National Park[5]
* Inglewood Nature Conservation Reserve[5]
* Wychitella Nature Conservation Reserve[5]

References
  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. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
  2. 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.
  3. Gill, Frank; Donsker, David (eds.). "Honeyeaters". World Bird List Version 6.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 28 January 2016.
  4. "Yellow-plumed Honeyeater". Birdlife Australia. Retrieved 20 July 2022.
  5. Tzaros, C. (2021) Wildlife of the Box-Ironbark Country. 2nd Edition, CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne, Victoria, ISBN 9781486313150
  6. 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
  7. "Birdlife Gluepot Reserve Bird List - April 2016 (Alphabetic Order)" (PDF). Gluepot Reserve (PDF). Birdlife Australia. April 2016. Retrieved 20 July 2022.
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