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The blue-faced honeyeater (''Entomyzon cyanotis''), also colloquially known as the bananabird, is a passerine bird of the honeyeater family, Meliphagidae. It is the only member of its genus, and it is most closely related to honeyeaters of the genus ''Melithreptus''. Three subspecies are recognised. At around in length, the blue-faced species is large for a honeyeater. Its plumage is distinctive, with olive upperparts, white underparts, and a black head and throat with white nape and cheeks. Males and females are similar in external appearance. Adults have a blue area of bare skin on each side of the face readily distinguishing them from juveniles, which have yellow or green patches of bare skin. Found in open woodland, parks and gardens, the blue-faced honeyeater is common in northern and eastern Australia and southern New Guinea. It appears to be sedentary in parts of its range and locally nomadic in other parts; however, the species has been little studied. Its diet is mostly composed of invertebrates, supplemented with nectar and fruit. They often take over and renovate old babbler nests, in which the female lays and incubates two or rarely three eggs. ==Taxonomy and naming== The blue-faced honeyeater was first described by ornithologist John Latham in his 1802 work ''Supplementum Indicis Ornithologici, sive Systematis Ornithologiae''. However, he described it as three separate species, seemingly not knowing it was the same bird in each case: The blue-eared grackle (''Gracula cyanotis''), the blue-cheeked bee-eater (''Merops cyanops''), and as the blue-cheeked thrush (''Turdus cyanous''). It was as the blue-cheeked bee-eater that it was painted between 1788 and 1797 by Thomas Watling, one of a group known collectively as the Port Jackson Painter. It was reclassified in the genus ''Entomyzon'', which was erected by William Swainson in 1825, who observed the "Blue-faced Grakle" as the only insectivorous member of the genus and posited it was a link between the smaller honeyeaters and the riflebirds of the genus ''Ptiloris''. The generic name is derived from the Ancient Greek ''ento-/εντο''- ("inside") and ''myzein/μυζειν'' "to drink" or "suck". The specific epithet, ''cyanotis'', means "blue-eared" and combines ''cyano-/κυανο''- "blue" with ''otis'', a Latinised form of ''ωτος'', the Greek genitive of ''ous/ους'' "ear". Swainson spelt it ''Entomiza'' in an 1837 publication, and George Gray wrote ''Entomyza'' in 1840. The blue-faced honeyeater is generally held to be the only member of the genus, although its plumage suggests an affinity with honeyeaters of the genus ''Melithreptus''. It has been classified in that genus by Glen Storr, although others felt it more closely related to wattlebirds (''Anthochaera'') or miners (''Manorina''). A 2004 molecular study has resolved it as close to ''Melithreptus'' after all. Molecular clock estimates indicate the blue-faced honeyeater diverged from the ''Melithreptus'' honeyeaters somewhere between 12.8 and 6.4 million years ago, in the Miocene epoch. It differs from them in its much larger size, brighter plumage, more gregarious nature and larger patch of bare facial skin. Molecular analysis has shown honeyeaters to be related to the Pardalotidae (pardalotes), Acanthizidae (Australian warblers, scrubwrens, thornbills, etc.), and the Maluridae (Australian fairy-wrens) in a large Meliphagoidea superfamily. Early naturalist George Shaw had called it the blue-faced honey-sucker in 1826. Other common names include ''white-quilled honeyeater'', and ''blue-eye''.〔 Its propensity for feeding on the flowers and fruit of bananas in north Queensland has given it the common name of ''banana-bird''.〔 A local name from Mackay in central Queensland is ''pandanus-bird'', as it is always found around ''Pandanus'' palms there. It is called ''morning-bird'' from its dawn calls before other birds of the bush. ''Gympie'' is a Queensland bushman's term. Thomas Watling noted a local indigenous name was ''der-ro-gang''.〔 John Hunter recorded the term ''gugurruk'' (pron. "co-gurrock"), but the term was also applied to the black-shouldered kite (''Elanus axillaris''). It is called ''(minha) yeewi'', where ''minha'' is a qualifier meaning 'meat' or 'animal', in Pakanh and ''(inh-)ewelmb'' in Uw Oykangand and Uw Olkola, where ''inh-'' is a qualifier meaning 'meat' or 'animal', in three aboriginal languages of central Cape York Peninsula. Three subspecies are recognised: *''E. c. albipennis'' was described by John Gould in 1841 and found in north Queensland, west though the Gulf of Carpentaria in the Northern Territory and across into the top of Western Australia. It has white on the wings and a discontinuous stripe on the nape. The wing patch is pure white in the western part of its range and is more cream towards the east.〔Higgins, p. 608.〕 It has a longer bill and shorter tail than the nominate race. Birds also decrease in size with decreasing latitude, consistent with Bergmann's rule.〔Higgins, p. 607.〕 Molecular work supports the current classification of this subspecies as distinct from the nominate subspecies ''cyanotis''.〔 *''E. c. cyanotis'', the nominate form, is found from Cape York Peninsula south through Queensland and New South Wales, into the Riverina region, Victoria, and southeastern South Australia.〔 *''E. c. griseigularis'' is found in southwestern New Guinea and Cape York, and was described in 1909 by Dutch naturalist Eduard van Oort. It is much smaller than the other subspecies. The original name for this subspecies was ''harteri'', but the type specimen, collected in Cooktown, was found to be an intergrade form. The new type was collected from Merauke. This subspecies intergrades with ''cyanotis'' at the base of the Cape York Peninsula, and the zone of intermediate forms is narrow.〔 The white wing patch is larger than that of ''cyanotis'' and smaller than that of ''albipennis''.〔 Only one bird (from Cape York) of this subspecies was sampled in a molecular study, and it was shown to be genetically close to ''cyanotis''.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Blue-faced honeyeater」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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