Yellow-faced Honeyeater - Taxonomy

Taxonomy

The Yellow-faced Honeyeater was first described, and placed in the genus Sylvia, by ornithologist John Latham in his 1801 work Supplementum Indicis Ornithologici, sive Systematis Ornithologiae. The generic name Lichenostomus comes from the Ancient Greek words meaning "lichen-like eruption of the mouth" referring to the bare skin at the gape flange thought to look like lichen, and the specific name chrysops is from the Greek words meaning "gold" and "face" in reference to the stripe of yellow feathers. It is also known as the Yellow-gaped Honeyeater, or the Quitchup in reference to its call.

Delineating the genus Lichenostomus has been systematically contentious, and evaluations of relationships among honeyeaters in the genus using dense taxon and nucleotide sampling confirmed previous findings that Lichenostomus is not monophyletic. While five species have previously been described as comprising the Caligavis subgroup, studies using the mitochondrial ND2 and nuclear β-fibrinogen-7 genes identified the Yellow-faced Honeyeater as closely related to the Black-throated Honeyeater (L. subfrenatus), and the Obscure Honeyeater (L. obscurus), and they were therefore able to be grouped as Caligavis. The Bridled Honeyeater (L. frenatus) and the Eungella Honeyeater (L. hindwoodi) were sufficiently different to be a separate genus or subgenus, proposed as Bolemoreus.

Three subspecies have been described (Matthews, 1912) but are not universally recognised. There are only very slight differences between the nominate race and L.c. samueli found in the Mount Lofty Ranges in South Australia and L. c. barroni from Clarke Range and the Atherton Tableland in Queensland. The latter race is described as "poorly differentiated" and "possibly not worthy of recognition" by the Handbook of the Birds of the World.