| Gilliard's honeyeater | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Meliphagidae |
| Genus: | Vosea Gilliard, 1960 |
| Species: | V. whitemanensis |
| Binomial name | |
| Vosea whitemanensis Gilliard, 1960 | |
| Synonyms | |
Melidectes whitemanensis | |
Gilliard's honeyeater (Vosea whitemanensis) or theBismarck honeyeater, is abirdspecies in thefamilyMeliphagidae. It is the only species placed in the genusVosea. It isendemic toNew Britain. Its naturalhabitat is subtropical or tropical moistmontane forests.
Gilliard's honeyeater was described by the American ornithologistThomas Gilliard in 1960 from specimens collected in the Whiteman Mountains on the island ofNew Britain in theBismarck Archipelago. Gilliard introduced the genusVosea and coined thebinomial nameVosea whitemanensis. The genus nameVosea was chosen to honour the memory of Charles R. Vose (1890–1957), an American businessman, explorer and sponsor. The specific epithetwhitemanensis is from thetype locality.[2][3] The species was formerly placed in the genusMelidectes but was transferred to its own genusVosea based on the results of amolecular phylogenetic study published in 2019.[4][5] The species ismonotypic: nosubspecies are recognised.[5]
Formerly classified as a species ofleast concern by theIUCN,[6] it was suspected to be rarer than generally assumed. Following the evaluation of its population size, this was found to be correct, and it is consequently uplisted tonear threatened status in 2008.[7]
Data related toMelidectes whitemanensis at Wikispecies | This article about ahoneyeater is astub. You can help Wikipedia byadding missing information. |
