Brown honeyeater
| Brown honeyeater | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Meliphagidae |
| Genus: | Lichmera |
| Species: | L. indistincta |
| Binomial name | |
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Lichmera indistincta Vigors & Horsfield, 1827 |
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The brown honeyeater (Lichmera indistincta) belongs to the honeyeaters, a group of birds found mainly in Australia and New Guinea which have highly developed brush-tipped tongues adapted for nectar feeding. It is a medium-small brownish bird, with yellow-olive panels in the tail and wing and a yellow tuft behind the eye.
Widespread across western, northern and eastern Australia, the brown honeyeater occupies a range of habitats from mangroves to eucalypt woodlands. It is seasonally nomadic within its local area, following flowering food plants. While it usually forages alone, it also feeds in small groups, or flocks of mixed honeyeater species. Nectar and insects form its diet. It occupies the same breeding territory each year, and lays two or three eggs in a cup-shaped nest woven from grass and soft bark. Both sexes contribute to nest building and feeding the young. It has a loud, clear, musical song, described as the best of all the honeyeaters.
While the brown honeyeater is declining in some areas such as the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia, overall its population levels and distribution are sufficient to have it described by the IUCN as being of least concern for conservation.
The brown honeyeater was originally described by Nicholas Aylward Vigors and Thomas Horsfield in 1827 as Meliphaga indistincta. The species name indistincta is from the Latin word meaning "obscure". Vigors and Horsfield were working from the bird collection of the Linnean Society in London, and they said of the brown honeyeater specimen, "It is however in very bad condition, and scarcely admits of a description." Later included in the "catch-all" genus Gliciphila, the brown honeyeater is now classified as a member of the genus Lichmera, from the Greek word meaning "to lick" or "to dart the tongue", following Schodde (1975), Sibley and Monroe (1990) and Christidis and Boles (1994). As well as the nominate race Lichmera indistincta indistincta, a number of other sub-species are recognised: ocularis (derived from the Medieval Latin word "oculus" meaning eye), melvillensis (named for Melville Island where it is found), limbatus (from the Latin for "fringed") and nupta (from the Latin "nubere" meaning to marry, or be married to). The Indonesian honeyeater Lichmera limbata is treated as a sub-species of L. indistincta by some taxonomic authorities.
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