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The western spinebill (''Acanthorhynchus superciliosus'') is a honeyeater found in the heath and woodland of south-western Western Australia. Ranging between long, it weighs around . It has a black head, gray back and wings, with a red band behind its neck and from its throat to its breast. Its curved bill is long and slender. Like other honeyeaters, the western spinebill feeds on nectar. It tends to obtain its nectar from lower shrubs than most other honeyeaters, including ''Banksia'', ''Dryandra'', ''Grevillea'', ''Adenanthos'' and ''Verticordia''. It also feeds from trees of ''Banksia'' and ''Eucalyptus'', and from herbs such as ''Anigozanthos''. In addition to nectar, it feeds on insects that it captures in the air or on plants. It is a frequent visitor to ''Adenanthos obovatus'', and its territories are smaller when they contain more shrubs of this species. Male spinebills often contest their territory borders with other males, and allow females to live within them. These territories range from 0.2 to 0.5 hectares in size. With their long curved bills, western spinebills are the only honeyeaters able to gain nectar out of the tube-like flowers. It breeds from September to January, in a nest made from bark, plant stems, down and spider web. It lays 1–2 eggs, usually incubated by the female. ==Systematics== First described by John Gould in 1837, the western spinebill is a monotypic species, with only one form found across its range. It forms a superspecies with the closely related eastern spinebill. Scientists believe the two sister species are descended from a shared ancestor whose once widespread populations were separated by climate change. During a past period of desertification, that ancestor species retreated to refuges in the southwestern and southeastern corners of the continent, and evolved into the two present-day spinebill species. Recent DNA studies have shown that the two spinebills belong to a clade which is a sister taxon to all other honeyeaters. The two are members of the genus ''Acanthorhynchus'', from the Ancient Greek ''akantha'', meaning "spine" and ''rhunkhos'', meaning "bill".〔Jobling (2010), p. 30.〕 The species name ''superciliosus'' is Latin for "eyebrowed", a reference to the male's bold white supercilium.〔Jobling (2010), p. 374.〕 Early settler George Fletcher Moore reported that the Noongar, southwestern Australia's indigenous people, called this species "buljit". 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Western spinebill」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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