Cryptic Honeyeater

[Phil Gregory <>]

Hi David,

You got me to double-check, like I did for my own FNQ guide, and I quote from Lloyd’s paper:

Two subspecies of Graceful Honeyeater Meliphaga (Microptilotis) gracilis are recognised in north-eastern Queensland: imitatrix inhabiting the Wet Tropics and gracilis inhabiting northern Cape York Peninsula. 

These are now split into two species 

I don’t have the ABG handy so can’t check what they do.

Regards

Phil Gregory

ornithological writer/tour leader/tour facilitator

Field Guides / Sicklebill Safaris / Cassowary House / Cassowary Tours
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On 23 Jan 2020, at 10:39 AM, David Asscherick <> wrote:

Clarification please. The 2017 CSIRO Australian Bird Guide by Menkhorst et.al. has the “imitatrix” sub-species as the northern sub-spieces and “gracilis” as the southern. It seemed to me that your notification described the opposite. Can you please clarify which Honeyeater is the northern and which is the southern? Thank you!

Also, can you provide any info on links on the latest split(s) of Variegated Fairywren? Thanks again!

Best, 

David Asscherick 

On Jan 23, 2020, at 8:58 AM, Phil Gregory <m("gmail.com","oreornis");" class="">> wrote:

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

Field Guides / Sicklebill Safaris / Cassowary House / Cassowary Tours
PO Box 387
Kuranda
QLD 4881
Australia

Ph: +61 7 40 937 318

Email: m("s2travel.com.au","info");" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);" class="">
Website1: http://www.sicklebillsafaris.com OR www.birder.travel

Website 2: http://www.cassowary-house.com.au

Website 3: http://www.cassowarytours.com.au

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