User:JulieMay54/sandbox/Banded honeyeater

The Banded Honeyeater (Cissomela pectoralis) is a species of honeyeater in the family Meliphagidae with a diagnostic narrow black band across its white underparts. It is endemic to tropical northern Australia.

Taxonomy and systematics
The scientific name for the Banded Honeyeater is Cissomela pectoralis (Gould, 1841). The holotype was Holotype ANSP 18224 male, Australia: north coast, held in the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, Philadelphia.

The Banded Honeyeater was previously placed in the genus Certhionyx but was moved to the monotypic genus Cissomela after a molecular phylogenetic analysis published in 2011 showed that the original genus was polyphyletic.

The genus name Cissomela (Bonaparte, 1854) means "honey magpie" from the Greek kissa for jay or possibly magpie thus referring to the black and white colouring, and mela meaning honey for its feeding habits.The species name, pectoralis, comes from the Latin pectoris for breast refering to the distinctive banded breast of this bird.

Description
The Banded Honeyeater is a small, pied honeyeater with a distinctive black breast band across white underparts. It has a black back, tail and head, a long curved bill and long legs.

It has a wingspan of 57-70mm, a bill measuring 14 to 18mm, a body measuring 115 to 135 mm and weighs between 8 and 13 grams.

Behaviour and ecology
The IUCN Red List rating, the Northern Territory Conservation Status and Queensland Conservation Status for this species is Least Concern (LC).

The Banded Honeyeater inhabits tropical grassy woodland, open forests, mangroves and Melaleuca swamps. It feeds on the nectar of eucalypts and some other open flowers such as Grevilleas, paperbarks and Bauhinias plus insects. It usually moves in pairs or small groups but large groups can gather when blossom is plentiful. It is a blossom nomad or can have seasonal movements in various parts of its range which is restricted to tropical northern Australia.