Caring for Pollinators - Bundesamt für Naturschutz

Schuchmann Fact sheet pollinators: Avian pollinators: Hummingbirds, Sunbirds,
Honeyeaters, Hawaiian Honeycreepers (Trochilidae,Nectariniidae,
Meliphagidae, Carduelidae)
III. Honeyeaters
Family Meliphagidae
Order Passeriformes
Species number: Old world: c. 173; Number of genera: 52
Distribution
Old World. Australasian region, including New Zealand and New Guinea, Lesser Sunda and
Bonin Islands, Micronesia, Melanesia, Polynesia, and Hawaii. Australia is the most speciesdiverse
region (68 species) (Pizzey 1980). Honeyeaters occupy every vegetational zone
including mangroves and subalpine habitats as far as 4500 m asl.
Honeyeaters biology and pollination
Honeyeaters are fairly slim birds with elongated often slightly decurved bills. They vary in
size and body mass (size 10 – 40 cm, 8 – 80 g). Although many species are basically
sedentary they still show local movement, especially in those taxa occuring in arid habitats.
A few species are regular migrants, e.g., Yellow-faced (Lichenostomus chrysops) and Whitenaped
Honeyeaters (Melithreptus lunatus), which migrate from south to central-east
Australia. Much movement is associated with flowering patterns of major food plants, such
as eucalyptus, coastal banksias or the arid-zone emu-bush (Eremophila).
Probably all honeyeaters consume some nectar and some of them depend on it as their
main food source of energy, others take it when it becomes locally abundant. Likewise, all
honeyeaters feed on arthropods (c. 60% of all food items), fruits and mistletoe berries (e.g.,
Painted Honeyeater, Grantiella picta). Unusual food items include crustaceans (Mangrove
Honeyeater, Lichenostomus fasciogularis) and lizards (Wattled Honeyeater, Foulehaio
carunculata).
Main flower preferences
Honeyeaters are important pollinators of native plants of the families Myrtaceae, Proteaceae,
and Epacridaceae in Australia, New Zealand, and elsewhere (Armstrong 1979, Ford & Paton
1986). Bird flowers are usually red, yellow or white, though some are cryptically coloured.
Corollas are open and cup-like, tubular or gullet-shaped. Many inflorescences of native
plants in Australia and New Zealand are brush-like. Some honeyeaters are seed dispersers,
others are both pollinators and seed dispersers of mistletoes (Loranthaceae).
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