Yellow-tufted honeyeater

Species of bird

The yellow tufted honeyeater (Lichenostomus melanops) is a passerine bird found in the south east ranges of Australia. A predominantly black and yellow honeyeater, it is split into four subspecies.

The yellow tufted honeyeater was first described by the English ornithologist John Latham in 1801, and given two different binomial names: Muscicapa auricomis and Turdus melanops. The latter name was retained as a nomen protectum, and the former a nomen oblitum, as the epithet melanops has been used consistently for over a century. It belongs to the honeyeater family Meliphagidae. More recently, DNA analysis has shown honeyeaters to be related to the Pardalotidae, and the Petroicidae (Australasian robins) in a large corvid superfamily; some researchers include all these families in a broadly defined Corvidae. The generic name Lichenostomus is derived from the Ancient Greek leikhēn 'lichen, callous' and stoma 'mouth'; the specific epithet melanops derives from Ancient Greek melas 'black' and opsis 'face'.

The yellow tufted honeyeater is long, with females usually smaller. It has a bright yellow forehead, crown and throat, a glossy black mask and bright golden ear tufts. The back is olive green to olive brown on wings and tail, and the underparts are more olive yellow. The bill and gape are black, eyes brown, and legs grey brown.

The yellow tufted honeyeater occurs from south east Queensland through eastern New South Wales and across Victoria. Its preferred habitats are dry open sclerophyll forests and woodlands dominated by eucalypts with shrubby undergrowth, as well as mallee, brigalow and cypress pine (Callitris). The helmeted honeyeater subspecies is largely restricted to dense vegetation along riverbanks, dominated by the mountain swamp gum (Eucalyptus camphora) with a dense understorey of woolly tea tree (Leptospermum lanigerum), scented paperbark (Melaleuca squarrosa), saw sedge (Gahnia), ferns and tussock grasses.

Yellow tufted honeyeaters are a noisy, active species in colonies from a few up to a hundred. It aggressively defends territories around flowering trees. It has a great variety of calls from a warbled "tui t tui t tui", a whistled "wheit wheit", a sharp "querk" to a harsh contact call "yip" or "chop chop".

The diet of the yellow tufted honeyeater is primarily arthropods, such as a variety of insects and spiders, and occasionally snails. It also feeds on lerps and honeydew, nectar and sap flows from eucalypts, occasionally fruit and flowers.

Breeding takes place between July and March (mostly from September to January), with one or two broods each season. The nest is a cup shaped structure of dried grasses, bits of bark and other plant material, bound with spider webs and lined with fur and feathers, hung by its rim in dense shrubbery or regrowth. Two or three eggs, each measuring , are laid, pinkish in colour, blotched with pale reddish or buff brown. The eggs are incubated mostly by the female for 14 16 days. The nestlings are brooded by the female and fed by both sexes and any helpers, fledging at 13 15 days post hatch and usually becoming independent by 6 weeks. The nests are parasitized by the fan tailed cuckoo (Cacomantis flabelliformis), pallid cuckoo (Cacomantis pallidus) and shining bronze cuckoo (Chrysococcyx lucidus).

Yellow tufted honeyeaters, as a species, are not listed as threatened on the Australian Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 or on any state based legislation. However, at the subspecies level, the helmeted honeyeater (L. m. cassidix) is considered to be threatened:
This subspecies is listed as endangered on the Australian Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. This subspecies is listed as threatened on the Victorian Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act (1988). Under this Act, an Action Statement for the recovery and future management of this species has been prepared. On the 2007 advisory list of threatened vertebrate fauna in Victoria, the helmeted honeyeater is listed as critically endangered.