White-plumed honeyeater

White-plumed honeyeater
At Sundown National Park, Queensland, Australia
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Meliphagidae
Genus:	Ptilotula
Species:	P. penicillatus
Binomial name
Ptilotula penicillatus (Gould, 1837)

The white-plumed honeyeater (Ptilotula penicillatus) is a bird native to Australia. It is yellow above and paler beneath, with a black and white line on the sides of its neck. The white neck band of a white-plumed honeyeater is its most prominent feature, the rest of the feathers being shades of green and buff. Juveniles have a pinkish orange beak that darkens to black in adults. Honeyeaters feed on nectar and insects and their nest is a small cup nest in a tree. The size of an average white-plumed honeyeater is approximately 19 cm.

White-plumed honeyeaters are common around water and are often seen in backyards and suburbs with vegetation cover.^[2]

The white-plumed honeyeater was previously placed in the genus Lichenostomus but was moved to Ptilotula after a molecular phylogenetic analysis published in 2011 showed that the original genus was polyphyletic.^[3][4]

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  The cup nest

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  Nest with two eggs

References

1. BirdLife International (2012). "Lichenostomus penicillatus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
2. http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/species/Lichenostomus-penicillatus
3. Nyári, Á.S.; Joseph, L. (2011). "Systematic dismantlement of Lichenostomus improves the basis for understanding relationships within the honeyeaters (Meliphagidae) and historical development of Australo–Papuan bird communities". Emu 111: 202–211. doi:10.1071/mu10047.
4. Gill, Frank; Donsker, David (eds.). "Honeyeaters". World Bird List Version 6.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 28 January 2016.