Bell miner
| Bell miner | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Superfamily: | Meliphagoidea |
| Family: | Meliphagidae |
| Genus: | Manorina |
| Species: | M. melanophrys |
| Binomial name | |
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Manorina melanophrys (Latham, 1801) |
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| Bell miner range | |
The bell miner (Manorina melanophrys), commonly known as the bellbird, is a colonial honeyeater endemic to southeastern Australia. The common name refers to their bell-like call. "Miner" is an old alternative spelling of the word "myna" and is shared with other members of the genus Manorina. The birds feed almost exclusively on the dome-like coverings, referred to as "bell lerps", of certain psyllid bugs that feed on eucalyptus sap from the leaves. The psyllids make these bell-lerps from their own honeydew secretions in order to protect themselves from predators and the environment.
Bell miners live in large, complex social groups. Within each group there are subgroups consisting of several breeding pairs, but also including a number of birds who are not currently breeding. The nonbreeders help in providing food for the young in all the nests in the subgroup, even though they are not necessarily closely related to them. The birds defend their colony area communally aggressively, excluding most other passerine species. They do this in order to protect their territory from other insect-eating birds that would eat the bell lerps on which they feed. Whenever the local forests die back due to increased lerp psyllid infestations, bell miners undergo a population boom.
The bell miner (Manoria melanophrys) belongs to the family of honeyeaters and Australian chats (Meliphagidae), which is part of the super family Meliphagoidea that also comprises the Australian warblers, scrubwrens, and thornbills (Acanthizidae); bristlebirds (Dasyornithidae); fairy-wrens (Maluridae); and pardalotes (Pardalotidae). Bell miners share the genus Manorina with three other endemic Australian miners: the noisy miner (M. melanocephala), the yellow-throated miner (M. flavigula), and the endangered black-eared miner (M. melanotis). The three other miners were previously classified in the genus Myzantha which is still sometimes listed as a subgenus for those species. The closest related genus to Manorina has been genetically found to be the New Guinea and New Britain Melidectes honeyeaters. The bell miner's tinkling bell-like call was noted by early European explorers including Joseph Banks who wrote in the 1770 Endeavour Journal that the dawn chorus was "almost imitating small bells," and the name bellbird was considered established 30 years later when David Collins mentioned "the melancholy cry of the bellbird." In 1802 John Latham named the bird Manorina melanophrys meaning "black-browed, large nostrilled bird" with the suggested common name Black-Browed Thrush,. While Latham's scientific name became accepted, John Gould continued to use Australian Bellbird as the name for the species in 1848.
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