Strong-billed Honeyeater Melithreptus validirostris Scientific name definitions

15 cm; male 23·5–30·5 g, female 17·5–28·5 g. Has neat black cap covering top and side of head and hindneck, arc of bare light blue to blue-green or pale green skin over top of eye , and broad white (sometimes smudged grey-brown) crescent-shaped band across nape; sharply demarcated white malar area grades into off-white on sides of chin and throat , with small black patch in centre of chin and mid-line of throat; upperparts largely olive-grey, mottled olive-green, rump and uppertail-coverts brighter and more uniformly olive; uppertail dull olive; upperwing mostly grey-brown, dark brown primary coverts and rest of remiges, faint olive tinge on edges of primary coverts (in fresh plumage); underbody light brownish-grey, undertail brownish-grey, underwing brownish-buff with broad brown trailing edge and tip; iris red-brown; bill and gape black; legs brown to dirty pink. Sexes alike in plumage, male larger than female. Juvenile is patterned like adult, but with duller, brown-black cap, lemon-yellow malar area and band across nape, olive-green mottling extending from mantle to hindneck, distinct olive edges and tips on primary coverts, bill brown, grading to orange-buff at tip, gape orange-buff and swollen, iris dark brown to reddish-brown, bare skin over eye initially absent, then develops small light blue patch, orbital ring conspicuous orange-buff, legs orange to dark pink.

Islands in Bass Strait (King I, Flinders I, Cape Barren I) and Tasmania.

Mainly mature, wet sclerophyll forests, including stands of mountain ash (Eucalyptus regnans) or alpine ash (Eucalyptus delegatensis), especially in gulleys supporting an understorey either of sclerophyllous shrubs or of cool temperate rainforest; common also in dry sclerophyll forest dominated by eucalypts, on drier slopes and mountain ridges, including those with understorey of sclerophyllous shrubs, grass or sedges, particularly during winter. Sometimes in cool temperate rainforest dominated by antarctic beech (Nothofagus cunninghamii), Huon pine (Dacrydium franklinii), celery-top pine (Phyllocladus aspleniifolius) or blackwood (Acacia melanoxylon); subalpine eucalypt forest or woodland; low coastal scrub or heathland; closed wet scrub beside wetlands or in gulleys and dominated by Acacia, Leptospermum, Melaleuca and Banksia, sometimes with emergent eucalypts; and buttongrass (Gymnoschoenus sphaerocephalus) sedgeland with scattered emergent eucalypts. Sometimes in parks and gardens.

Resident; some local movements from wet sclerophyll forest into dry sclerophyll during winter. Sometimes considered nomadic, especially after young fledged, but this probably describing local movements.

Usually invertebrates (mainly insects), sometimes also nectar and fruit. Forages in canopy, subcanopy and understorey of trees and shrubs. Mostly probes or gleans bark , including pendent bark, of large branches and trunks of rough-barked or smooth-barked eucalypts, or among foliage and twigs; occasionally feeds at flowers, and very occasionally among leaf litter on ground, and sometimes makes aerial sallies. Often forages in manner of an Australasian treecreeper (Climacteridae), moving up and down trunks of trees, searching crevices, and pulling off pieces of loose or pendent bark to expose prey. Techniques include several unique within genus: flaking, in which bird flicks off small pieces of bark, or brushes aside loose substrate with sideways sweeping motion of bill; prying, in which it uses bill or head to lever off strips of bark; and pulling, by grasping, pulling and tearing to remove strips of bark. Active and confiding. Mostly in small flocks, but sometimes in congregations of up to 40, once of 70, individuals; often forages with M. affinis.

Noisy. Continuous loud short  , sharp “cheep” notes, as single or double notes, or in rattling cadence; soft “cheep” as contact call when nesting, but not at other times. Other calls include harsh, aggressive “churr” in alarm or when defending breeding territory, and sharp whistle when raptor detected nearby.

Season primarily late winter to mid-summer, Jul to mid-Jan, with eggs recorded Aug–Dec and nestlings mid-Aug to early Sept. Occasionally breeds co-operatively, but no details. Nest a small, deep cup, usually made of strips of bark (sometimes encrusted with lichen), sometimes also grass, leaves, wool and spider web, usually lined with soft bark fibres, plant down, wool, hair, fur or paper, sometimes unlined, external diameter 10·2 cm, depth 8·9 cm, internal diameter 6·4 cm, depth 3·8 cm; usually suspended by rim in eucalypt tree or sapling, or in other tree or shrub in understorey, occasionally in crown of tree-ferns, usually in outer foliage or in outer branches and twigs at top of nest plant, 2–11 m (mean 4·6 m) above ground. Clutch 3–4 eggs, usually 3; incubation probably by both sexes, and both also feed and defend nestlings; no information on duration of incubation and nestling periods. Nests parasitized by Pallid Cuckoo (Heteroscenes pallidus).

Not globally threatened. Restrictedrange species: present in Tasmania EBA. Widespread in Tasmania. No estimates of total population, but recorded at densities of up to 2·5 birds/ha.