Grey honeyeater
Kingdom
Phylum
Class
Family
Genus
SPECIES
Conopophila whitei

The grey honeyeater (Conopophila whitei ) is a species of bird in the honeyeater family.It is an uncommon and little-known bird, an often overlooked endemic of remote areas in central Australia.

Appearance

A tiny honeyeater, grey and discreet, with a nondescript colouration that is only faintly marked. The length is 10.5–12 cm (4.1–4.7 in).

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The plumage of the upper body is generally cold grey, the lower parts paler, becoming browner until a moult. Tail and flight feathers are a blackish brown, and a slightly darker marking extends across the eye to the bill. The tips of the tail feathers are white, aging to buffish. The bill is relatively short for a honeyeater, slightly down-curved and grey, becoming black toward the tip. There is a pale and indistinct ring of feathers, tinted buff, around the eye.The colour of the iris is brown, the legs are steel grey.

Juveniles have a faintly yellowish cast to the thin eye-ring, that almost disappears as they mature, and on the pale grey feathers of the throat. The grey flight feathers of the immature birds have a yellow-green wash.

The grey honeyeater is similar in appearance to the Western gerygone (Gerygone fusca ), yellow-rumped thornbill (Acanthiza chrysorrhoa ) and others of the genus Acanthiza, all of which it often accompanies in mixed species flocks. Care should be taken to distinguish the grey honeyeater from the female redthroat (Pyrrholaemus brunneus )

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Distribution

Geography

Countries
Biogeographical realms

The grey honeyeater is found in a range extending across the mid-west to the centre of the Australian continent, especially in the Pilbara and Murchison regions of Western Australia, and southern and central Northern Territory. It is rare to uncommon and probably sedentary with some nomadic movement.The species is found in semi-arid mulga (Acacia aneura ) and similar acacia scrublands. The occurrence of mistletoe may be an important factor in determining its distribution.Some good locations for finding the grey honeyeater are the Olive Pink Botanic Garden, Alice Springs, in the Northern Territory, and Wanjarri Nature Reserve, south of Wiluna, and Tom Price, in Western Australia.

Diet and Nutrition

The grey honeyeater is primarily insectivorous, busily gleaning the surface of foliage for lerp and similar insects or hovering to capture flying insects. It also feeds on nectar by piercing the deep, tubular flowers of species such as Eremophila, and on the nectar and berries of mistletoe.

Mating Habits

The breeding season is August to November, which may extend through to May, if there is summer rain. The nest is a small, frail, untidy cup of fine grass stems, lined with hair and plant down, bound with spider web, hanging from slender twigs in the outer foliage of a mulga shrub. A clutch of 1 or 2 eggs, each measuring 17 mm × 13 mm (0.67 in × 0.51 in), is laid. The eggs are swollen oval and slightly glossy white, spotted with reddish-brown. Incubation is probably by both sexes, as is the feeding of nestlings and fledglings.

Population

Population number

The grey honeyeater is classified as least concern on the IUCN Red List. It is considered as endangered in Western Australia. Threats are uncontrolled fires from which mulga takes many years to recover, and also grazing by introduced animals that damage the habitat.

References

1. Grey honeyeater Wikipedia article - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_honeyeater
2. Grey honeyeater on The IUCN Red List site - https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22704409/93966819
3. Xeno-canto bird call - https://xeno-canto.org/566894

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