Animalia Life
Plectorhyncha lanceolata
TAXONOMY
Plectrorhyncha lanceolata Gould, 1838, New South Wales, Australia.
OTHER COMMON NAMES
English: Lanceolated honeyeater; French: Mйliphage lancйolй;
German: Strichelhonigfresser; Spanish: Pбjaro Azъcar Gris.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
8.5 in (22 cm); 1.4 oz (40 g). Cheek and forehead to nape is
dark with white stripes. Underparts a pinkish buff with grayish
upperparts and tail.
DISTRIBUTION
Eastern Australia, from mid-north Queensland to northern
Victoria and west to Yorke Peninsula, especially inland from
Great Dividing Range.
HABITAT
Riparian woodland with Casuarina and mallee and other semiarid
woodlands with eucalyptus, acacia, and native pine.
BEHAVIOR
In pairs or small groups, emit an attractive whistling song.
Generally sedentary, but exhibit some, probably local, movements.
FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET
Take nectar from eucalyptus, mistletoes, and other plants, and
occasionally eat fruits and seeds. Insects and spiders are
gleaned from foliage and bark or captured in the air.
REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY
Breed from August to January in nest suspended from drooping
foliage, often near nests of gray butcherbird (Cracticus
torquatus). Clutch from two to five eggs (usually three). Both
parents apparently incubate and occasionally have helpers feeding
young, which hatch at 16–17 days and fledge at 16–17
days. Parasitized by pallid cuckoo.
CONSERVATION STATUS
Not threatened.
SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS
Occasionally regarded as a pest at orchards.
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