White-eared honeyeater
| White-eared honeyeater | |
|---|---|
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Meliphagidae |
| Genus: | Nesoptilotis |
| Species: | leucotis |
| Binomial name | |
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Nesoptilotis leucotis (Latham, 1801) |
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| Synonyms | |
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Lichenostomus leucotis |
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Lichenostomus leucotis
The white-eared honeyeater (Nesoptilotis leucotis) is a medium-sized honeyeater found in Australia. It is a member of the family Meliphagidae (honeyeaters and Australian chats) which has 182 recognised species with about half of them found in Australia. This makes them members of the most diverse family of birds in Australia. White-eared honeyeaters are easily identifiable by their olive-green body, black head and white ear patch.
The white-eared honeyeater was first described by English ornithologist John Latham in 1801 as Turdus leucotis. It has been reclassified several times and was previously named Lichenostomus leucotis and Ptilotis leucotis torringtoni.
The white-eared honeyeater was previously placed in the genus Lichenostomus but was moved to Nesoptilotis after a molecular phylogenetic analysis published in 2011 showed that the original genus was polyphyletic. It is a sister taxon to the yellow-throated honeyeater (N. flavicollis) that occurs in Tasmania. The two are part of a clade that contains the genera Entomyzon, Melithreptus and Foulehaio.
The white-eared honeyeater has an olive-green upper and lower body; its wings and tail are a mix of brown, yellow and olive; the crown is dark grey with black streaks; its cheeks, throat are black; its ear-coverts are white. Its iris is red or brown (juvenile); its bill is black and its legs are dark grey. The white-eared honeyeater is a medium-sized honeyeater 19–22 cm tall. There is no sexual dimorphism, with males and females looking alike. They weigh approximately 20g and have a beak length of approximately 17 mm long.
Their voice is deep and mellow but slightly metallic chwok, chwok, chwok-whit and kwitchu, kwitchu; very sharply scratchy, metallic chwik!.
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Wikipedia