| Following a great paper by Lloyd Nielsen last year in AFO, IOC has accepted the split of what is now called Cryptic Honeyeater from Graceful Honeyeater, which occurs further up Cape York from N of Cooktown on and into S. New Guinea. Thus we have a new FNQ endemic, the split also adopted by BirdLife but with the ludicrous name of Imitatress Honeyeater (derived from the scientific name of imitatrix). There was considerable debate on IOC about what to call it, with the placeholder of Quiet Honeyeater initially, which no-one liked, and eventually Cryptic seemed like a good solution. So Graceful Honeyeater from Cooktown south is now this species, as flagged in the Field Guide to Birds of North Queensland by Jun Matsui and I (New Holland 2019)
Phil Gregory ornithological writer/tour leader/tour facilitator
|
