Common smoky honeyeater

Last updated

The common smoky honeyeater (Melipotes fumigatus) is a medium-sized bird found in central Papua New Guinea and Eastern Indonesia. It is one of four species in the Meliphagidae family. The common smoky honeyeater can be identified by its charcoal-colored body and blotchy neon orange circle around its eyes. [1] This bird breeds in September and October, which are considered dry seasons. Its diet consists of small fruits, insects, and floral plants. This bird breeds in September and early October above ground or next to a tree branch.

Contents

Common smoky honeyeater
Smoky Honeyeater.jpg
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Meliphagidae
Genus: Melipotes
Species:
M. fumigatus
Binomial name
Melipotes fumigatus
Meyer, AB, 1886

Description

The common smoky honeyeater has a bright orange splotch around both eyes. The bird's upper wing has brown tips, olive-colored edges, and a lighter shade of brown on the base of its wings. This bird has a brown and black base. The common smoky honeyeater has a brown belly with white crescent-shaped scaling and gray and brown legs. [1] The best way to differentiate between males and females is to look at their size because male common smoky honeyeaters tend to be bigger than females. [3]

Habitat

Its habitat is in Southeast Asia, specifically in Eastern Indonesia and Central Papua New Guinea. [4] It soars at altitudes around 1,400 to 3,400 meters. However, the females and males tend to live at different altitude levels. The females live much higher in the mountains, at around 2,160 to 2,490 meters. The males typically live anywhere between 1,830 and 2,160 meters. [1] During the common smoky honeyeater's migration season, they descend to the mountains of Papua New Guinea, anywhere from 750 to 1,200 meters in altitude. [4]

Vocalization

The common smoky honeyeater makes a "sit-sit-sit" or a faint "swift-swift-swift" sound. When it is near the young, it makes a "wheat-wheat-wheat" to alarm other common smoky honeyeaters. [1]

Diet and foraging

The common smoky honeyeater primarily eats raw fruit and fruit-like produce, but they have been observed eating various insects and floral parts. [3] Despite its name, nectar is not a part of its diet because the common smoky honeyeater only eats fruit, insects, and floral plants. This bird consumes fruits that are typically 2 to 8 millimeters in diameter. Common smoky honeyeaters peck at flowers that attract insects as a method to find food. [1] This bird strikes on insects by rushing at insects with its nose down. The common smoky honeyeater is also known for driving other species away from its feeding sites. It does this by chasing away other birds, such as the Superb Bird-of-Paradise. [3]

Breeding

The common smoky honeyeater breeds above ground or near the end of a branch off a small tree. Their breeding season aligns with New Guinea's dry season, which is in September and early October. [1] Its nest consists mainly of moss and other plant material. One nest was observed to be 14 centimeters wide and 14 centimeters deep. Typically, their nests are 4.5 to 12 meters above ground.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Waxwing</span> Genus of birds

The waxwings are three species of passerine birds classified in the genus Bombycilla. They are pinkish-brown and pale grey with distinctive smooth plumage in which many body feathers are not individually visible, a black and white eyestripe, a crest, a square-cut tail and pointed wings. Some of the wing feathers have red tips, the resemblance of which to sealing wax gives these birds their common name. According to most authorities, this is the only genus placed in the family Bombycillidae, although sometimes the family is extended to include related taxa that are more usually included in separate families: silky flycatchers, Hypocolius (Hypocoliidae), Hylocitrea (Hylocitreidae), palmchats (Dulidae) and the Hawaiian honeyeaters (Mohoidae). There are three species: the Bohemian waxwing, the Japanese waxwing and the cedar waxwing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Honeyeater</span> Family of birds

The honeyeaters are a large and diverse family, Meliphagidae, of small to medium-sized birds. The family includes the Australian chats, myzomelas, friarbirds, wattlebirds, miners and melidectes. They are most common in Australia and New Guinea, and found also in New Zealand, the Pacific islands as far east as Samoa and Tonga, 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Painted berrypecker</span> Family of birds

The painted berrypeckers, Paramythiidae, are a very small bird family restricted to the mountain forests of New Guinea. The family comprises three species in two genera: the tit berrypecker in Oreocharis, and the eastern crested berrypecker and western crested berrypecker in Paramythia. These are colourful medium-sized birds which feed on fruit and some insects. These species were formerly included in the Dicaeidae, but DNA–DNA hybridization studies showed these species were related to each other but distinct from the flowerpeckers. Some sources group painted berrypeckers as two genera belonging to the berrypecker family Melanocharitidae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Melanocharitidae</span> Family of birds

The Melanocharitidae, the berrypeckers and longbills, is a small bird family restricted to the forests of New Guinea. The family contains eleven species in four genera. They are small songbirds with generally dull plumage but a range of body shapes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yellow-faced honeyeater</span> Species of bird in the family Meliphagidae

The yellow-faced honeyeater is a small to medium-sized bird in the honeyeater family, Meliphagidae. It takes its common and scientific names from the distinctive yellow stripes on the sides of its head. Its loud, clear call often begins twenty or thirty minutes before dawn. It is widespread across eastern and southeastern Australia, in open sclerophyll forests from coastal dunes to high-altitude subalpine areas, and woodlands along creeks and rivers. Comparatively short-billed for a honeyeater, it is thought to have adapted to a diet of flies, spiders, and beetles, as well as nectar and pollen from the flowers of plants, such as Banksia and Grevillea, and soft fruits. It catches insects in flight as well as gleaning them from the foliage of trees and shrubs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mistletoebird</span> Species of bird

The mistletoebird, also known as the mistletoe flowerpecker, is a species of flowerpecker native to most of Australia and also to the eastern Maluku Islands of Indonesia in the Arafura Sea between Australia and New Guinea. The mistletoebird eats mainly the berries of the parasitic mistletoe and is a vector for the spread of the mistletoe's seeds through its digestive system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spiny-cheeked honeyeater</span> Species of bird

The spiny-cheeked honeyeater is the only species in the genus Acanthagenys. It is large for a honeyeater, ranging from 22 to 27 centimeters tall and weighing around 52 grams. The birds are sociable, aggressive, and often observed foraging in large flocks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Papuan mountain pigeon</span> Species of bird native to New Guinea and eastern Indonesia

The Papuan mountain pigeon is a species of bird in the pigeon family, Columbidae. It is found in the Bacan Islands, New Guinea, the D'Entrecasteaux Islands, and the Bismarck Archipelago, where it inhabits primary forest, montane forest, and lowlands. It is a medium-sized species of pigeon, being 33–36 cm (13–14 in) long and weighing 259 g (9.1 oz) on average. Adult males have slate-grey upperparts, chestnut-maroon throats and bellies, whitish breasts, and a pale grey terminal tail band. The lores and orbital region are bright red. Females are similar, but have grayish breasts and grey edges to the throat feathers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White-bibbed fruit dove</span> Species of bird

The white-bibbed fruit dove is a species of bird in the family Columbidae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black honeyeater</span> Species of birds

The black honeyeater is a species of bird in the honeyeater family Meliphagidae. The black honeyeater exhibits sexual dimorphism, with the male being black and white while the female is a speckled grey-brown; immature birds look like the female. The species is endemic to Australia, and ranges widely across the arid areas of the continent, through open woodland and shrubland, particularly in areas where the emu bush and related species occur.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Painted honeyeater</span> Species of bird

The painted honeyeater is a species of honeyeater in a monotypic genus.

The long-bearded honeyeater, is a bird in the honeyeater family Meliphagidae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yellow-spotted honeyeater</span> Species of bird

The yellow-spotted honeyeater is a species of bird in the family Meliphagidae. It is also known as the lesser lewin. The bird is endemic to northern Queensland. The bird's common name refers to the yellow patch that members of the species have behind their eyes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Red-headed myzomela</span> Passerine bird of the honeyeater family

The red-headed myzomela or red-headed honeyeater is a passerine bird of the honeyeater family Meliphagidae found in Australia, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea. It was described by John Gould in 1840. Two subspecies are recognised, with the nominate race M. e. erythrocephala distributed around the tropical coastline of Australia, and M. e. infuscata in New Guinea. Though widely distributed, the species is not abundant within this range. While the IUCN lists the Australian population of M. e. infuscata as being near threatened, as a whole the widespread range means that its conservation is of least concern.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marbled honeyeater</span> Species of bird

The marbled honeyeater is a species of bird in the family Meliphagidae. The size of the marbled honeyeater is found to be 20–22 cm. The bird is classified as medium-sized with a medium-length solid bill. The male is 40–58 grams while the female is 36–46 grams in size.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spotted honeyeater</span> Species of bird

The spotted honeyeater is a species of bird in the family Meliphagidae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Double-toothed barbet</span> Species of bird

The double-toothed barbet is a species of bird in the family Lybiidae. It is found in Angola, Benin, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, and Uganda. Within Lybius bidentatus, there are two subspecies: Lybius bidentatus bidentatus and Lybius bidentatus aequatorialis.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Higgins, Peter J.; Christidis, Les; Ford, Hugh (2020). "Smoky Honeyeater (Melipotes fumigatus), version 1.0". Birds of the World. doi:10.2173/bow.smohon1.01. ISSN   2771-3105.
  2. BirdLife International (2016). "Melipotes fumigatus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2016: e.T103688019A93961966. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T103688019A93961966.en . Retrieved 12 November 2021.
  3. 1 2 3 "Smoky Honeyeater - eBird". ebird.org. Retrieved 2024-03-24.
  4. 1 2 "Smoky Honeyeater".