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The yellow-faced honeyeater (''Lichenostomus chrysops'') is a medium-small bird in the honeyeater family Meliphagidae. It takes both its common name and scientific name from the distinctive yellow stripes on the sides of its head. It has a loud clear call, and is one of the first birds heard in the morning. It is widespread across eastern and south eastern 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 for 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. While some yellow-faced honeyeaters are sedentary, hundreds of thousands of them migrate northwards between March and May to spend the winter in southern Queensland and return in July and August to breed in southern New South Wales and Victoria. They form socially monogamous pairs and lay two or three eggs in a delicate cup-shaped nest. While the success rate can be low, the pairs nest several times during the breeding season. Honeyeaters’ preferred woodland habitat is vulnerable to the effects of land clearing, grazing and weeds. However, as it is common and widespread, the yellow-faced honeyeater is considered by the IUCN to be of least concern for conservation. It is considered a pest in orchards in some areas. ==Taxonomy== The yellow-faced honeyeater was first described, and placed in the genus ''Sylvia'', by ornithologist John Latham in his 1801 work ''Supplementum Indicis Ornithologici, sive Systematis Ornithologiae''. The generic name ''Lichenostomus'' comes from the Ancient Greek words meaning "lichen-like eruption of the mouth" referring to the bare skin at the gape flange thought to look like lichen, and the specific name ''chrysops'' is from the Greek words meaning "gold" and "face" in reference to the stripe of yellow feathers. It is also known as the yellow-gaped honeyeater, or the quitchup in reference to its call. Delineating the genus ''Lichenostomus'' has been systematically contentious, and evaluations of relationships among honeyeaters in the genus using dense taxon and nucleotide sampling confirmed previous findings that ''Lichenostomus'' is not monophyletic. While five species have previously been described as comprising the ''Caligavis'' subgroup, studies using the mitochondrial ND2 and nuclear β-fibrinogen-7 genes identified the yellow-faced honeyeater as closely related to the black-throated honeyeater (''L. subfrenatus''), and the obscure honeyeater (''L. obscurus''), and they were therefore able to be grouped as ''Caligavis''. The bridled honeyeater (''L. frenatus'') and the Eungella honeyeater (''L. hindwoodi'') were sufficiently different to be a separate genus or subgenus, proposed as ''Bolemoreus''. Three subspecies have been described (Matthews, 1912) but are not universally recognised. There are only very slight differences between the nominate race and ''L.c. samueli'' found in the Mount Lofty Ranges in South Australia and ''L. c. barroni'' from Clarke Range and the Atherton Tableland in Queensland. The latter race is described as "poorly differentiated" and "possibly not worthy of recognition" by the ''Handbook of the Birds of the World''. 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「Yellow-faced honeyeater」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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