The Black-headed Honeyeater (Melithreptus affinis) is a species of bird

Bird

Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...

 in the Meliphagidae family.
It is one of two members of the genus Melithreptus

Melithreptus

Melithreptus is a genus of bird in the honeyeater family Meliphagidae. Its members are native to Australia. It is generally considered to contain seven species, although some authors have classified the related Blue-faced Honeyeater within this genus....

endemic to Tasmania

Tasmania

Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...

. Its natural habitat

Habitat

* Habitat , a place where a species lives and grows*Human habitat, a place where humans live, work or play** Space habitat, a space station intended as a permanent settlement...

s are temperate 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 and Mediterranean-type shrubby vegetation.

Taxonomy

The Black-headed Honeyeater was described in 1839 as Eidopsarus affinis. John Gould

John Gould

John Gould was an English ornithologist and bird artist. The Gould League in Australia was named after him. His identification of the birds now nicknamed "Darwin's finches" played a role in the inception of Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection...

 described it as Melithreptus melanocephalus in 1844, likely unaware of its earlier name.

Molecular studies show the Black-headed Honeyeater is most closely related to the White-naped Honeyeater

White-naped Honeyeater

The White-naped Honeyeater Melithreptus lunatus is a passerine bird of the Honeyeater family Meliphagidae native to eastern Australia. Birds from southwestern Australia have been shown to be a distinct species, the Western White-naped Honeyeater, and the eastern birds more closely related to the...

, and that their next closest relative is the Western White-naped Honeyeater

Western White-naped Honeyeater

The Western White-naped Honeyeater , also known as the Swan River Honeyeater, is a passerine bird of the honeyeater family Meliphagidae native to south-western Australia.-Etymology:...

. All are members of the genus Melithreptus

Melithreptus

Melithreptus is a genus of bird in the honeyeater family Meliphagidae. Its members are native to Australia. It is generally considered to contain seven species, although some authors have classified the related Blue-faced Honeyeater within this genus....

with several species, of similar size and (apart from the Brown-headed Honeyeater

Brown-headed Honeyeater

The Brown-headed Honeyeater is a species of passerine bird in the Meliphagidae family.It is endemic to Australia. Its natural habitats are temperate forests and Mediterranean-type shrubby vegetation....

) black-headed appearance, in the 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 Meliphagidae. The next closest relative outside the genus is the much larger but similarly marked Blue-faced Honeyeater. More recently, 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...

 analysis has shown honeyeaters to be related to the Pardalotidae (pardalotes), Acanthizidae

Acanthizidae

The Acanthizidae, also known as the Australasian warblers, are a family of passerine birds which include gerygones, thornbills, and scrubwrens. The Acanthizidae consists of small to medium passerine birds, with a total length varying between 8 and 19 cm. They have short rounded wings, slender...

 (Australian warblers, scrubwrens, thornbills, etc.), and the Maluridae

Maluridae

The Maluridae are a family of small, insectivorous passerine birds endemic to Australia and New Guinea. Commonly known as wrens, they are unrelated to the true wrens of the Northern Hemisphere...

 (Australian fairy-wrens) in a large Meliphagoidea

Meliphagoidea

Meliphagoidea is a superfamily of passerine birds. They contain a vast diversity of small to mid-sized songbirds widespread in the Austropacific region. The Australian Continent has the largest richness in genera and species.-Systematics:...

 superfamily.

Description

A mid-sized honeyeater, it is olive green above and white below, with a wholly black head that lacks the white nape of its relatives. It has a blue-white patch of bare skin around the eye. Its beak is small.

Distribution and habitat

The Black-headed Honeyeater is endemic to Tasmania, where it is found in wet and dry sclerophyll forests, as well as scub and heathland, and subalpine habitats to an altitude of 1200 m (4000 ft).

Feeding

Insects form the bulk of the diet, and the Black-headed Honeyeater specialises in foraging among the foliage of trees, as opposed to probing the trunk for prey which is practised by its relative the Strong-billed Honeyeater

Strong-billed Honeyeater

The Strong-billed Honeyeater is a species of bird in the Meliphagidae family.It is one of two species of the genus Melithreptus endemic to Tasmania.Its natural habitat is temperate forests.-Taxonomy:...

, and the two species rarely overlap. Birds often hang upside down from branches while foraging.