Family NECTARINIIDAE Vigors, 1825


Compiler and date details

R. Schodde, CSIRO Australian National Wildlife Collection, Canberra, ACT, Australia; updated and upgraded by N.W. Longmore, Museum Victoria, 2006

 

Introduction

The family Nectarinidae has its centre of distribution in palaeotropical Africa and Asia, extending through the Indonesian Archipelago to many south-west Pacific islands. These diminutive birds are one of the most colourful of species of the region. One hundred and twenty-nine species are recognised in 17 genera, however numbers of genera and their included species are highly debatable (Dickinson 2003). Only one species occurs in Australia, restricted to the continent's north-east where it is usually closely associated with the seaboard (Schodde & Mason 1999). This sole representative of the family occurs extralimitally, in several south-west Pacific islands. In Australia it is represented by a single subspecies also found in the Moluccas and Aru Islands of Indonesia and on the New Guinea mainland. Movements in Australia are uncertain: they are highly nomadic and show a possibly migratory movement across Torres Strait.

The sunbirds feed primarily on invertebrates but also take nectar. They are arboreal, feeding by gleaning, hawking, hovering and snatching to obtain their prey. Often the birds are found to be gregarious, particularly post breeding or centred about food sources. At other times they tend to be in small parties or, on occasion, solitary. Sunbirds occupy habitats that include food trees and shrubs on which they are dependant; these include wet and dry forests, bordering woodlands, mangroves and human habitation.

Long pendulous nests are diagnostic for the species. 'A small globular structure of fibre and bark strips bound with cobweb and lined with vegetable down; with hooded side entrance and a long trailing tail attached at the base' (Longmore 1991). Nests are situated in the outer hanging limbs of shrubs and are often attached under the eaves and verandahs of tropical dwellings. Two, sometimes three, eggs are laid in the nest. The eggs have a greenish base colour and are blotched and marbled by grey, greyish-brown and olive markings.

 

Diagnosis

'Nostrils are rounded and fully operculate with lateral opening slits, and, instead of coarse irregular serrations on the maxilla alone, both maxilla and mandible carry an even, close-set row of microscopic tuberculate teeth on the tomia … [and have] fully double fossa in the head of the humerus and tiny twin ectethmoid foramina, indicate affinities with the passeroid southeast Asian flowerpeckers (Dicaeidae, q.v.).'

 

Diagnosis References

Schodde, R. & Mason, I.J. 1999. The Directory of Australian Birds : Passerines. A Taxonomic and Zoogeographic Atlas of the Biodiversity of Birds in Australia and its Territories. Collingwood, Australia : CSIRO Publishing x 851 pp.

 

General References

Dickinson, E.C. (ed.) 2003. The Howard & Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World. London : Christopher Helm 1039 pp.

Longmore, W. 1991. Honeyeaters & their Allies of Australia. Sydney : Angus and Robertson.

Schodde, R. & Mason, I.J. 1999. The Directory of Australian Birds : Passerines. A Taxonomic and Zoogeographic Atlas of the Biodiversity of Birds in Australia and its Territories. Collingwood, Australia : CSIRO Publishing x 851 pp.

 

History of changes

Note that this list may be incomplete for dates prior to September 2013.
Published As part of group Action Date Action Type Compiler(s)
12-Feb-2010 (import)

Genus Nectarinia Illiger, 1811

 

Distribution

States

Queensland


Note that conversion of the original AFD map of states, drainage basins and coastal and oceanic zones to IBRA and IMCRA regions may have produced errors. The new maps will be reviewed and corrected as updates occur. The maps may not indicate the entire distribution. See further details below.

IBRA

Qld: Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Central Mackay Coast (CMC), Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Desert Uplands (DEU), Einasleigh Uplands (EIU), Gulf Plains (GUP), Mount Isa Inlier (MII), NSW North Coast (NNC), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Wet Tropics (WT)

Other Regions

Torres Strait Islands terrestrial, marine & freshwater

Original AFD Distribution Data

Australian Region

Oriental Region

History of changes

Note that this list may be incomplete for dates prior to September 2013.
Published As part of group Action Date Action Type Compiler(s)
12-Feb-2010 (import)

Subgenus Nectarinia (Cyrtostomus) Cabanis, 1851

 

Distribution

States

Queensland


Note that conversion of the original AFD map of states, drainage basins and coastal and oceanic zones to IBRA and IMCRA regions may have produced errors. The new maps will be reviewed and corrected as updates occur. The maps may not indicate the entire distribution. See further details below.

IBRA

Qld: Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Central Mackay Coast (CMC), Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Desert Uplands (DEU), Einasleigh Uplands (EIU), Gulf Plains (GUP), Mount Isa Inlier (MII), NSW North Coast (NNC), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Wet Tropics (WT)

Other Regions

Torres Strait Islands terrestrial, marine & freshwater

Original AFD Distribution Data

Australian Region

Oriental Region

History of changes

Note that this list may be incomplete for dates prior to September 2013.
Published As part of group Action Date Action Type Compiler(s)
10-Nov-2020 PASSERIFORMES 08-Jul-2014 MODIFIED Dr Federica Turco (QM)
12-Feb-2010 (import)

Species Nectarinia (Cyrtostomus) jugularis (Linnaeus, 1766)

CAVS: 0572

Olive-backed Sunbird

Distribution

States

Queensland


Note that conversion of the original AFD map of states, drainage basins and coastal and oceanic zones to IBRA and IMCRA regions may have produced errors. The new maps will be reviewed and corrected as updates occur. The maps may not indicate the entire distribution. See further details below.

IBRA

Qld: Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Central Mackay Coast (CMC), Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Desert Uplands (DEU), Einasleigh Uplands (EIU), Gulf Plains (GUP), Mount Isa Inlier (MII), NSW North Coast (NNC), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Wet Tropics (WT)

Other Regions

Torres Strait Islands terrestrial, marine & freshwater

Original AFD Distribution Data

Australian Region

Oriental Region

Ecological Descriptors

Broadleaf thicket/shrubland, human habitation, mangrove or mangal, paperbark woodland, subtropical rainforest, tropical rainforest.

 

Nomenclatural details of nominate taxon, not in Australia

Certhia jugularis Linnaeus, C. (1766). Systema Naturae per Regna Tria Naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. Editio duodecima, reformata. Holmiae : Laurentii Salvii Vol. 1 1327 & 36 pp. [185].

 

Common Name References

Schodde, R. & Mason, I.J. 1999. The Directory of Australian Birds : Passerines. A Taxonomic and Zoogeographic Atlas of the Biodiversity of Birds in Australia and its Territories. Collingwood, Australia : CSIRO Publishing x 851 pp. (Olive-backed Sunbird)

 

History of changes

Note that this list may be incomplete for dates prior to September 2013.
Published As part of group Action Date Action Type Compiler(s)
12-Feb-2010 (import)

Subspecies Nectarinia (Cyrtostomus) jugularis frenata S. Müller, 1843

CAVS: 8466

 

Distribution

States

Queensland


Note that conversion of the original AFD map of states, drainage basins and coastal and oceanic zones to IBRA and IMCRA regions may have produced errors. The new maps will be reviewed and corrected as updates occur. The maps may not indicate the entire distribution. See further details below.

IBRA

Qld: Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Central Mackay Coast (CMC), Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Desert Uplands (DEU), Einasleigh Uplands (EIU), Gulf Plains (GUP), Mount Isa Inlier (MII), NSW North Coast (NNC), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Wet Tropics (WT)

Other Regions

Torres Strait Islands terrestrial, marine & freshwater

Original AFD Distribution Data

Australian Region

Ecological Descriptors

Broadleaf thicket/shrubland, human habitation, mangrove or mangal, paperbark woodland, subtropical rainforest, tropical rainforest.

 

History of changes

Note that this list may be incomplete for dates prior to September 2013.
Published As part of group Action Date Action Type Compiler(s)
12-Feb-2010 (import)