Other Names (World)
Lewin's Honeyeater, Lewin Honeyeater, Lewin's Meliphaga, Yellow-eared Honeyeater, Bananabird, Brasseye, Orangebird, White Lug, White Jug
Derivation
Mel-iph'-ag-a - Gk, meli, honey; Gk, phagein, to eat: lewinii - John William Lewin (1770 - 1819), son of English naturalist and painter William Lewin, took passage to New South Wales and arrived in Sydney in 1800
Nest
Cup-shaped, composed of strips of bark, dried leaves and moss, bound with cobweb, lined with dried grasses and plant-down, suspended by the rim from a thin forked horizontal branch in the dense outer foliage of a small tree, from 2 - 5 m above above the ground.
Eggs (Guide)
2 sometimes 3; white, with deep red spots; oval.
Young
Fledge in 14 - 15 days.
Subspecies
Proposed subspecies nea (from Dandenong, in Victoria) synonymized with nominate.
The following 3 subspecies are recognised:
lewinii (Swainson, 1837) - Coastal south-eastern Australia from west Gippsland and Dandenong Ranges, Vic, north to Dawson - MacKenzie Basin, Qld and inland to summit ridges of the Great Divide, including Liverpool and Nandewar Ranges.
mab (Mathews, 1912) - Coastal central-eastern and north-eastern Queensland from Dawson - MacKenzie Basin north to Cooktown and inland to summit ridges of the Great Divide.
amphochlora Schodde, 1989 - McIlwraith Range, eastern Cape York Peninsula with outliers south to Cooktown.
Similar Species
Yellow-spotted Honeyeater (Meliphaga notata) which is smaller, has a brown eye, slightly deeper yellow, round ear patch with a blunt rearward point and Graceful Honeyeater (Microptilotis gracilis) which is smaller still, has a brown eye, small round ear patch with a slight blunt rearward point and faint pale yellow streaked under parts.
References
See References.
The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Pizzey, G., and Knight, E., 1997, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 19691 5
Field Guide to Australian Birds Morecombe, M., 2000, Steve Parish Publishing Pty Ltd. ISBN 1 876282 10 X
Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Simpson, K., and Day, N., 1999, 6th Edition, Viking ISBN 0 670 87918 5
Reader's Digest Complete Book of Australian Birds 1988, 2nd Edition, Reader's Digest ISBN 0 949819 99 9
What Bird is That? 1984, Revised Edition, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 14846 5
Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds 1990 - , Oxford University Press, Melbourne ISBN 0 19 553244 9
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