Introduction

The honeyeaters (Meliphagidae) are one of the most speciose and distinctive elements of the Australo-Papuan bird fauna. Following a number of recent taxonomic revisions based on DNA analyses the family currently comprises 50 genera and 182 species (Cracraft and Feinstein 2000; Driskell and Christidis 2004; Ewen et al. 2006; Driskell et al. 2007; Norman et al. 2007; Fleischer et al. 2008; Nyari and Joseph 2011). The family reaches its highest diversity in Australia and New Guinea (125 species), but its distributional limits extend from Bali in the west, northward to Micronesia and eastward through New Zealand to islands of the southwest Pacific (Figure 5.1) (Mathew 2007; Higgins et al. 2008). The honeyeaters have a long evolutionary history in the region being a basal lineage of the oscine passerine radiation that arose in Gondwana prior to 34 Ma (Ericson et al. 2002). Unlike some elements of the Gondwanan biota, honeyeaters are absent from Africa and South America and, with the exception of a single species, do not extend west of Wallace’s Line.

The honeyeaters are an ecologically and morphologically diverse group. They range in size from 9–50 cm; the smallest species being the Myzomela honeyeaters and the largest the yellow wattlebird Anthochaera paradoxa (Daudin) (Higgins et al. 2008). Honeyeaters occur in nearly all habitats of the region and are often the most abundant species. They include both habitat specialists and generalists. The most distinctive morphological feature of the honeyeaters is the presence of a protrusible tongue with a brush-tip, an adaptation for nectar extraction (Paton and Collins 1989). Nectar is a major component of the diet of nearly all honeyeaters although some species are primarily insectivorous (e.g. green-backed honeyeater Glycichaera fallax (Salvadori) or frugivorous (e.g. painted honeyeater, Grantiella picta (Gould), a mistletoe specialist) (Higgins et al. 2008). Most commonly honeyeaters have a diet that consists of nectar supplemented with insects. Honeyeaters share a number of morphological, physiological and behavioural similarities with nectarivorous birds from other regions of the world (sunbirds and hummingbirds) (e.g. Pyke 1980) but they are unrelated (Sibley and Ahlquist 1990); the similarities are a consequence of convergent evolution.