Jim asked: whether similar head-bobbing/bowing and bill-clapping
displays have been reported for other genera of honeyeaters; are
Regent Honeyeaters and friarbirds closely related; and can I
recommend any literature on the displays of Regents?
The last question is easiest to answer - no. There is very little published
on honeyeater display behaviour at all, and only brief descriptions of
the displays of Regents. Perhaps the best place to begin is Longmore.
W. 1991. HONEYEATERS AND THEIR ALLIES. Angus & Robertson
Sydney. Another recent description of several calls and their contexts
was by Andrew Ley and Beth Williams in Australian Bird Watcher 15(8):
366-376.
I have little experience with friarbirds so I am unable to say whether
they have similar displays, but wattlebirds certainly bow and bill-clap
when breeding. In wattlebirds, the bill-clapping is probably an
aggressive display and the bowing/head-bobbing associated with
courtship and pair bonding. Perhaps the two are combined early in
courtship when the male is in two minds about whether to attract or repel
a potential mate from his territory. However, in Regents the bill-clapping
appears to be an integral component of courtship/pair-bonding, along
with the head-bobbing.
Within the Family Meliphagidae the wattlebirds and friarbirds, perhaps
along with the Regent Honeyeater, certainly seem to share some
behavioural and morphological similarities. However, I am unsure
whether they are more closely related to each other than to other genera
of Meliphagids. DNA studies currently underway at the Museum of
Victoria should shed some light on this.
Peter Menkhorst
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