The brown honeyeater (Lichmera indistincta) is a species of bird in the family Meliphagidae. It belongs to the honeyeaters, a group of birds which have highly developed brush-tipped tongues adapted for nectar feeding. Honeyeaters are found mainly in Australia, New Guinea, and parts of Indonesia, but the brown honeyeater is unique in that it also occurs on the island of Bali, making it the only honeyeater to be found west of the Wallace Line, the biogeographical boundary between the Australian-Papuan and Oriental zoogeographical regions.
It is a medium-small brownish bird, with yellow-olive panels in the tail and wing, and a yellow tuft behind the eye. It is widespread across western, northern and eastern Australia, New Guinea and surrounding islands, and the Lesser Sundas of Indonesia. Throughout this range, 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.
Taxonomy
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 'indistinct, 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 subspecies 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'). The Indonesian honeyeater (subspecies limbatus) was previously considered a distinct species due to its disjunct range, but is now treated as a subspecies of L. indistincta by major taxonomic authorities. A 2017 genetic study using both mitochondrial and nuclear DNA confirms the close relationship between the two, their lineages having diverged recently (in the order of tens of thousands of years).
Molecular analysis has shown honeyeaters to be related to the Pardalotidae (pardalotes), Acanthizidae (Australian warblers, scrubwrens, thornbills, etc.), and the Maluridae (Australian fairy-wrens) in the large superfamily Meliphagoidea.
Description
Appearance
The brown honeyeater is a medium-small, plain grey-brown honeyeater with a body length of , a wingspan of , and an average weight of . The female is slightly smaller than the male, but the sexes differ only slightly in appearance. The head, back, rump, and upper tail-coverts are brown, and the wings a darker brown. The only distinguishing features are a small yellow patch behind the eye, which is indistinct in some birds, and dull yellow-olive panels in the folded wings and tail. The brown honeyeater's sexual dimorphism is slight. The adult male has a dark brownish-grey forehead and crown, contrasting with a brownish nape. The forehead and crown of the adult female is a similar olive-brown to the rest of the upper body. A juvenile bird is similar to the female, but may lack or show only a trace of the yellow tuft behind the eye. The bill is black, and is long, slender, and curved slightly downwards, well adapted for probing deep tubular flowers. The gape in the male is black when breeding, and pale yellow at other times. The gape of the female is always pale yellow, and in the juvenile it is bright yellow and swollen. The iris is brown, and the feet and legs grey-black.