Wednesday 23 May 2012

Red brow, white nape

Yesterday I noticed a few White-naped Honeyeaters Melithreptus lunatus  in the pepper tree outside the back door but they were deep in the foliage and I was not able to get a photo. However today one was keen to get a drink from the waterlily bowl and spent a few minutes getting in position enabling a quick photo (although I didn't have time to adjust my speed so a bit of blurring).
There are two forms of this bird with the eastern form having the orange-red brow and is found down the east coast through to South Australia. The western form has a whitish eyebrow and is found in the south western corner of WA.

2 comments:

  1. Hi Ian
    I have written two recent posts which mention similar disjunct populations of birds and plants (related plants and animals, some differently speciated, some not).
    It is an interesting phenomenon.
    Cheers
    Denis

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  2. It is facinating to see variations in the separated forms of the same species.

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