Macleay's Honeyeater Xanthotis macleayanus Scientific name definitions

Of the 12 avian species endemic to the Australian Wet Tropics, the Macleay's Honeyeater is among the most common and certainly the most confiding—few other range-restricted rainforest endemics are hand-tame at picnic grounds and suburban gardens throughout their distributions, or are able to skirmish with invasive species such as House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) and Common Myna (Acridotheres tristis) for handouts at outdoor restaurants.

Although it is able to thrive in anthropogenically modified settings, the typical habitat of Macleay's Honeyeater is mature complex vine forest at low and middle elevations, where it is a regular attendee at mixed-species flocks and a very active forager, mainly in leafy canopies but also in a variety of other strata and substrates. It is notable for its unusually pugilistic behavior both toward conspecifics and toward heterospecifics of roughly similar (or smaller) size. Although it is not as vocal as many other honeyeaters, its vocalizations (like its appearance) are highly distinctive. There are virtually no sympatric species with which the Macleay's Honeyeater may be confused.

Nevertheless, despite its comparative abundance and the accessibility of its habitat, the natural history of Macleay's Honeyeater remains very poorly known. It is likely a provider of indispensable ecosystem services through its pollination of various flowering plants, but published confirmation is lacking (see Diet and Foraging). Because of its apparent ability to adapt to a wide range of human-modified landscapes, it likely is not of significant conservation concern at present, but definitive confirmation is lacking here as well (see Conservation and Management). Even very elementary questions about the species' biology (e.g., what is the condition and appearance of nestlings at hatching?) are, as yet, unanswered. There remain many gaps in human knowledge of Macleay's Honeyeater for modern researchers to fill in.