The black-chinned honeyeater (''Melithreptus gularis'') is a species of

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by th ...

bird in the family

Meliphagidae The honeyeaters are a large and diverse family, Meliphagidae, of small to medium-sized birds. The family includes the Australian chats, myzomelas, friarbirds, wattlebirds, miners and melidectes. They are most common in Australia and New Gu ...

. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

to Australia. Two subspecies are recognised. Its natural

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

s are temperate

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

s and subtropical or tropical dry forests.

Taxonomy

The black-chinned honeyeater was first described by John Gould in 1837 as ''Haematops gularis''. He also described what he called the golden-backed honeyeater (as ''Melithreptus laetior'') of northern Australia in 1875.

Frederick George Waterhouse Frederick George Waterhouse (25 August 1815 – 7 September 1898) was an English naturalist, zoologist and entomologist who made significant contributions to the study of the natural history of Australia. Waterhouse was born near London, a so ...

of the South Australian Museum had sent him four skins, writing of their beauty. Gould noted that it was clearly closely related to ''M. gularis'', but differed in its plumage and smaller size. Richard Schodde united them into a single species in 1975, though Hugh Ford queried this in 1986, as he felt the two forms were as distinct as the yellow-tinted and

fuscous honeyeater The fuscous honeyeater (''Ptilotula fusca'') is a species of bird in the family Meliphagidae. It is endemic to eastern Australia. The fuscous honeyeater is dull grey-brown to olive-brown above with buffy-grey underparts. The bill is black and th ...

s that had similar ranges. Schodde countered that the black-chinned and golden-backed honeyeaters shared a much broader zone of hybridization. Since then they have been maintained as two subspecies of ''M. gularis'', though Christidis and Boles noted in 2008 that data was limited and more fieldwork and genetic investigation were needed. Genetic data published in 2010 shows the two

taxa In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular nam ...

diverged between 0.3 and 1.2 million years ago, separated by the Carpentarian Barrier, located south of the Gulf of Carpentaria. The black-chinned honeyeater is a member of the genus '' Melithreptus'', with several species of similar size and (apart from the brown-headed honeyeater) black-headed appearance, in the honeyeater family

. Molecular markers show the black-chinned honeyeater is most closely related to the brown-headed, while the similarly plumaged strong-billed honeyeater was actually an earlier offshoot between 6.7 and 3.4 million years ago. These three species are classified in the subgenus ''Eidopsarus''; they have short sturdy feet, congregate in smaller flocks, live in more forested habitat than the other subgenus, and probe for insects on branches and bark, rather than in the foliage.

Description

A mid-sized honeyeater ranging from 14 to 16 cm (5.6–6.4 in) in length, it is olive-brown above and buff below, with a black head, nape and throat, with a bluish patch of bare skin over the eye and a white crescent-shaped patch on the nape. The legs and feet are orange. Juveniles have an all-over browner plumage. It makes a scratchy ''creep-creep-creep'' call, as well as a more musical one. Ford noted that individuals from southeastern Queensland northwards had more yellow-tinged upperparts and paler underparts; and that those of northeastern Queensland more matched the golden-backed subspecies, though the bare skin around their eyes remained aqua-blue. The golden-backed subspecies differs by having a yellow nape and rump, green-yellow back, smaller black on chin, more grey-white than buff breast, white flanks and abdomen, lighter brown wings, green-edged rectrices, and yellow-green bare skin around the eyes.

Distribution and habitat

The range of the black-chinned honeyeater is across northern Australia, from northwest Western Australia (including the Kimberley, Pilbara, Great Sandy and northern Gibson deserts), through the Top End and the Gulf Country to Cape York in Queensland, through central and eastern Queensland and into central New South Wales. It occurs east of the Great Divide in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, but is rare further south and appears to have declined in the Sydney region. It is found across central and northern Victoria and into eastern South Australia. It is considered ''vulnerable'' in New South Wales and South Australia, although it is secure overall. It lives in open woodland and dry sclerophyll forest, often near watercourses. The species is absent from savanna on the western edge of the

Einasleigh Uplands The Einasleigh Uplands is an interim Australian bioregion, with vegetation consisting of savanna and woodland located on a large plateau in inland Queensland, Australia. It corresponds to the Einasleigh Uplands savanna ecoregion, as identified ...

, particularly around the Newcastle and

Gregory Range The Gregory Range is a mountain range located in Far North Queensland, Australia. Location and features Part of the Great Dividing Range, the Gregory Range lies southeast of and southwest of . The range is located in an area of ephemeral water ...

Feeding

Insects form the bulk of the diet, and like its close relatives, the brown-headed and strong-billed honeyeaters, the black-chinned honeyeater forages by probing in the bark of trunks and branches of trees.

Breeding

Black-chinned honeyeaters may nest from July to December, breeding once or twice during this time. The nest is a thick-walled bowl of grasses and bits of bark, lined with softer plant material, hidden in the outer foliage of a tall tree, usually a eucalypt. One or (more commonly) two eggs are laid, 22 × 16 mm in size, and shiny, buff-pink, sparsely spotted with red-brown (more so on the larger end).

References

External links

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1591333 black-chinned honeyeater Birds of Queensland Birds of New South Wales Birds of South Australia Birds of Victoria (Australia) Endemic birds of Australia black-chinned honeyeater Taxonomy articles created by Polbot