The honeyeaters are a large and diverse family of
small to medium sized birds most common in
Australia and
New Guinea, but also found in New Zealand, the Pacific
islands as far east as Hawaii, and the islands to the north
and west of New Guinea known as Wallacea. Bali, on the other
side of the Wallace Line, has a single species.
Honeyeaters and the closely related Australian chats
make up the
familyMeliphagidae. In total there are 182
species in 42
genera, roughly half of them native to Australia, many
of the remainder occupying New Guinea. Like their closest
relatives, the
Maluridae (Australian wrens),
Pardalotidae (pardalotes
and thornbills), and Petroicidae (Australian robins), they
originated as part of the great corvid radiation in
Australia-New Guinea (which were joined in a single
landmass until quite recent geological times).
Although honeyeaters look and behave very much like other
nectar-feeding
passerines around the world (such as the
sunbirds and
flowerpeckers), they are unrelated, and the similarities
are the consequence of
convergent evolution.
Unlike the
hummingbirds of America, honeyeaters do not have
extensive adaptations for hovering flight, though smaller
members of the family do hover hummingbird-style to collect
nectar from time to time. In general, honeyeaters prefer to
flit quickly from perch to perch in the outer foliage,
stretching up or sideways or hanging upside down at need.
All genera have a highly developed brush-tipped tongue,
longer in some species than others, frayed and fringed with
bristles which soak up liquids readily. The tongue is
flicked rapidly and repeatedly into a flower, the upper
mandible then compressing any liquid out when the bill is
closed.
The extent of the evolutionary partnership between
honeyeaters and Australasian flowering plants is unknown,
but probably substantial. A great many Australian plants are
fertilised by honeyeaters, particularly the Proteacae,
Myrtaceae, and Epacridacae. It is known that the honeyeaters are
important in New Zealand as well, and assumed that the same
applies in other areas.
In addition to nectar, all or nearly all honeyeaters take
insects and other small creatures, usually by hawking,
sometimes by gleaning. A few of the larger species, notably
the White-eared Honeyeater, and the Strong-billed Honeyeater
of Tasmania, probe under bark for insects and other morsels.
Many species supplement their diets with a little fruit, and
a small number eat considerable amounts of fruit,
particularly in tropical rainforests and, oddly, in
semi-arid scrubland. The Painted Honeyeater is a mistletoe
specialist. Most, however, exist on a diet of
nectar supplemented by varing quantities of insects. In
general, the honeyeaters with long, fine bills are more
nectarivous, the shorter-billed species less so, but even
specialised nectar eaters like the
spinebills take extra insects to add protein to their
diet when they are breeding.
The movements of honeyeaters are poorly understood. Most
are at least partially mobile but many movements seem to be
local, possibly between favourite haunts as the conditions
change. Fluctuations in local abundance are common, but the
small number of definitely migratory honeyeater species
aside, the reasons are yet to be discovered. Many follow the
flowering of favourite food plants. Arid zone species appear
to travel further and less predictably than those of the
more fertile areas. It seems probable that no single
explanation will emerge: the general rule for honeyeater
movements is that there is no general rule.
The genus Apalopteron (Bonin Honeyeater), formerly
treated in the Meliphagidae, has recently been transferred
to the Zosteropidae on genetic evidence.
A new species of honeyeater, not yet described but
previously called "Smoky Honeyeater", has been discovered in
December 2005 in the Foja Mountains of Papua, Indonesia.
Species of Meliphagidae (Part of the
Meliphagoidea superfamily)
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