Brown honeyeater

The brown honeyeater (Lichmera indistincta) is a species of bird in the family Meliphagidae. It belongs to the honeyeaters, a group of birds which have highly developed brush-tipped tongues adapted for nectar feeding. Honeyeaters are found mainly in Australia, New Guinea, and parts of Indonesia, but the brown honeyeater is unique in that it also occurs on the island of Bali, making it the only honeyeater to be found west of the Wallace Line, the biogeographical boundary between the Australian-Papuan and Oriental zoogeographical regions.

It is a medium-small brownish bird, with yellow-olive panels in the tail and wing, and a yellow tuft behind the eye. It is widespread across western, northern and eastern Australia, New Guinea and surrounding islands, and the Lesser Sundas of Indonesia. Throughout this range, the brown honeyeater occupies a range of habitats from mangroves to eucalypt woodlands. It is seasonally nomadic within its local area, following flowering food plants. While it usually forages alone, it also feeds in small groups, or flocks of mixed honeyeater species. Nectar and insects form its diet. It occupies the same breeding territory each year, and lays two or three eggs in a cup-shaped nest woven from grass and soft bark. Both sexes contribute to nest building and feeding the young. It has a loud, clear, musical song, described as the best of all the honeyeaters.

While the brown honeyeater is declining in some areas, such as the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia, overall its population levels and distribution are sufficient to have it described by the IUCN as being of least concern for conservation.

The brown honeyeater is a medium-small, plain grey-brown honeyeater with a body length of 12–16 centimetres (4.7–6.3 in), a wingspan of 18–23 centimetres (7.1–9.1 in), and an average weight of 9–11 grams (0.32–0.39 oz). The female is slightly smaller than the male, but the sexes differ only slightly in appearance. The head, back, rump, and upper tail-coverts are brown, and the wings a darker brown. The only distinguishing features are a small yellow patch behind the eye, which is indistinct in some birds, and dull yellow-olive panels in the folded wings and tail. The brown honeyeater's sexual dimorphism is slight. The adult male has a dark brownish-grey forehead and crown, contrasting with a brownish nape. The forehead and crown of the adult female is a similar olive-brown to the rest of the upper body. A juvenile bird is similar to the female, but may lack or show only a trace of the yellow tuft behind the eye. The bill is black, and is long, slender, and curved slightly downwards, well adapted for probing deep tubular flowers. The gape in the male is black when breeding, and pale yellow at other times. The gape of the female is always pale yellow, and in the juvenile it is bright yellow and swollen. The iris is brown, and the feet and legs grey-black.

The appearance of the various subspecies is uniform, with other races similar in size and plumage to the nominate race with slight variations in degrees of colouration, and small differences in the length of the bill and the tail. Compared with L. i. indistincta, the male L. i. ocularis has slightly darker feathers on the top of the head with a greater contrast between crown and nape, and a longer bill. L. i. melvillensis has a moderately darker throat and breast than indistincta, and the female has a shorter tail. In L. i. nupta the differences between the sexes are even slighter than in the nominate race.

The nondescript brown honeyeater has a noteworthy song, usually described in superlatives. "A glorious voice, easily the best songster among Australian honeyeaters," is how one study of West Australian birds noted. "As a singer it has no superior among the honeyeater family, or for that matter, among Australian birds," said another report. It has a clear, rolling, musical call, rendered as sweet-sweet-quarty-quarty, which is very loud for the size of the bird. Both sexes call, usually early in the morning, though the male calls throughout the day during the breeding season. The alarm call is a harsh ke-ke given several times at short intervals.