Purple-gaped honeyeater
species of bird
The purple-gaped honeyeater (Lichenostomus cratitius) is a species of bird in the family Meliphagidae. It is endemic to semi-arid southern Australia, where it inhabits mallee, tall heath and associated low eucalypt woodland.
Description
The purple-gaped honeyeater is a medium-sized (16-19 centimetres) honeyeater which is generally grey-olive above and buffish yellow below. They have a patterned head, with a black eyestripe against a grey background and purple gape above a yellow streak on the throat and pointed yellow ear coverts. Juveniles are similar, but with duller facial patterns, slightly browner plumage, and a yellow gape and gape line. The Kangaroo Island subspecies is considered to be larger and darker than the mainland subspecies.
Similar species include yellow-plumed honeyeater and singing honeyeater.
The bird is also named Wattle-Cheeked Honeyeater in Birds of Australia vol 11 by Gregory Mathews
Call
The song is a clear toweet-toweet-toweet, followed by a high-pitched yep-yep-yep, often performed from a tall branch, including before dawn.
Distribution
They occur in disjunct populations across southern Australia, east from southern Western Australia, with the eastern population largely occurring south of the Murray River, and NSW forming the extreme north-east of its range. Despite its naturally disjunct populations, the purple-gaped honeyeater has very low genetic diversity across its range.
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This entry incorporates text from “Purple-gaped honeyeater” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.