The Kimberley Honeyeater (Meliphaga fordiana) is a bird in the Meliphagidae, or Honeyeater

Honeyeater

The honeyeaters are a large and diverse family of small to medium sized birds most common in Australia and New Guinea, but also found in New Zealand, the Pacific islands as far east as Samoa and Tonga, and the islands to the north and west of New Guinea known as Wallacea...

 family. It was formerly lumped with the White-lined Honeyeater

White-lined Honeyeater

The White-lined Honeyeater is a species of bird in the Meliphagidae family. It is endemic to northern Australia. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests. It formerly included the Kimberley Honeyeater as a subspecies.-References:* BirdLife International 2004. . ...

 but, based on DNA

DNA

Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...

 research, it is now considered a separate species. It is endemic to northern Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

Description

The Kimberley Honeyeater is similar in appearance to the White-lined Honeyeater, having dark grey upperparts, light grey underparts, grey eyes, with dark grey below the eyes and a black beak. It is distinguished from the White-lined Honeyeater by the lack of citrine edging on the upper surface of the remiges and retrices, pale creamy-buff under-wing coverts, and a milky-white belly.

Distribution

The Kimberly Honeyeater lives only in the Kimberley region of Western Australia

Western Australia

Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...

, in rainforest

Rainforest

Rainforests are forests characterized by high rainfall, with definitions based on a minimum normal annual rainfall of 1750-2000 mm...

s, eucalypt

Eucalypt

Eucalypts are woody plants belonging to three closely related genera:Eucalyptus, Corymbia and Angophora.In 1995 new evidence, largely genetic, indicated that some prominent Eucalyptus species were actually more closely related to Angophora than to the other eucalypts; they were split off into the...

 woodland

Woodland

Ecologically, a woodland is a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade. Woodlands may support an understory of shrubs and herbaceous plants including grasses. Woodland may form a transition to shrubland under drier conditions or during early stages of...

s and paperbark forest

Forest

A forest, also referred to as a wood or the woods, is an area with a high density of trees. As with cities, depending where you are in the world, what is considered a forest may vary significantly in size and have various classification according to how and what of the forest is composed...

s.

Breeding

The Kimberley Honeyeater breeds from August to January. Two pinkish eggs, spotted red or brown, are laid in a deep nest made of spiderweb and plant fibres.