The comparative ecology of ten species of honeyeaters in South Australia

Abstract

Abstract We describe the habitats and feeding sites used by ten species of honeyeaters in the Mount Lofty Ranges near Adelaide, South Australia.Five of the species have relatively short beaks and feed chiefly on insects gleaned from leaves and bark or captured in the air. They also visit the flowers of Eucalyptus and occasionally of other plants. Species in the same genus occupy different habitats. The five longer‐beaked species feed more often onflowers of a wider variety including Eucalyptus, tubular flowers of the heaths and the inflorescences of bottle‐brushes. They also feed on insects, most of which they capture in the air. Most of these species overlap broadly in habitat and thus form a guild of species which are very similar in their overall ecology.