The grey honeyeater (Conopophila whitei) is a species of bird in the honeyeater family.

It is an uncommon and little known bird, an often overlooked endemic of remote areas in central Australia.

Taxonomy and systematics

Currently placed as a species of the genus Conopophila, classified within the honeyeater family Meliphagidae, Conopophila whitei was first described by A. J. North in 1910 as Lacustroica whitei.^[2] The population described continued to be assigned to a monotypic genus Lacustroica,^[3] or as most closely related to two other species, the rufous-banded (Conopophila rufogularis) and rufous-throated (C. albogularis) honeyeaters.^[4]

The species was found by F. Lawson Whitlock in 1903 at Lake Austin in Western Australia, but no formal description of these was made.^[5] The two specimens he shot and prepared were sent to the Western Australian Museum, about which he received no reply, At the beginning of his later expedition, in 1909, Whitlock killed and skinned a male of the species, recognised as the same he collected in 1903, and located the preparation of a nest by a breeding pair close to the town-site of Wiluna. Whitlock also noted the location of other nesting sites on his journeys around Wiluna, all of which he found had been removed when he returned to them. He continued to observe the progress of the nest near the main street, that had remained undisrupted, eventually removing the branch that held it for his collection.^[6] These specimens were supplied to North for the first accepted description, published the following year.^[5][6]

The specific epithet, 'whitei', honours Alfred Henry Edsworth White, the son of ornithologist Henry L. White. The name of the genus is derived from the Greek conops, translated as a fondness for gnats.^[2] The image accompanying North's description in Emu (1910) was captioned with the name Alfred Honey-eater.^[1] The informal names for this species, aside from grey honeyeater, include White's honeyeater and inconspicuous honeyeater.^[11] The IOC World Bird List has proposed "Grey Honeyeater" as the English name for this species.^[12]

Description

A tiny honeyeater, grey and discreet, with a nondescript colouration that is only faintly marked. The length is between 10.5–12 centimetres.^[4]

The plumage of the upper body is generally cold grey, the lower parts paler, becoming browner until a moult. Tail and flight feathers are a blackish brown, and a slightly darker marking extends across the eye to the bill. The tips of the tail feathers are white, aging to buffish. The bill is relatively short for a honeyeater, slightly down-curved and grey, becoming black toward the tip. There is a pale and indistinct ring of feathers, tinted buff, around the eye.^[4][5]

The colour of the iris is brown, the legs are steel grey.^[5]

Juveniles have a faintly yellowish cast at the thin eye-ring, that almost disappears as they mature, and on the pale grey feathers on the throat. The grey flight feathers of the immature birds have a yellow-green wash.^[4]

The voice has been noted as loud and somewhat grating, or high pitched jingling, a monotonous though musical series of notes given in quick succession.^[2][4] The song has been compared as a quick rising "cre-seek", resembling the call of a white-bellied cuckooshrike (Coracina papuensis) or a fairy wren (Maluridae).^[4]

The species superficially resembles the silvereye, Zosterops lateralis, another small and greyish bird with similar habits and song.^[5] Grey honeyeaters are also similar in appearance to the Western gerygone, species Gerygone fusca, and to thornbills, Acanthiza chrysorrhoa and others of the genus Acanthiza, none of which are closely related taxa.^[11][4]

Distribution and habitat

The species is found in a range extending across the mid-west to the centre of the Australian continent, overlapping state borders of Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory.^[4]