Mistletoebird

About the Mistletoebird

The mistletoebird (Dicaeum hirundinaceum), also known as the mistletoe flowerpecker, is a species of flowerpecker native to most of Australia (though absent from Tasmania and the driest desert areas) and also to the eastern Maluku Islands of Indonesia in the Arafura Sea between Australia and New Guinea. The mistletoebird eats mainly the berries of the parasitic mistletoe and is a vector for the spread of the mistletoe's seeds through its digestive system.

The mistletoebird is one of 54 species of the flowerpecker family Dicaeidae. The flowerpeckers are considered to be nearest in avian evolutionary relationship to the sunbird family Nectariniidae. Both the flowerpeckers and sunbirds are thought to be early offshoots of the early passeroid radiation that occurred 20-30 million years ago. The sunbirds are found mainly in Africa and Asia and the flowerpeckers throughout Asia. The mistletoebird is a geologically recent arrival into Australia from South-East Asia. It is thought to have started colonizing Australia from about two million years ago.

The mistletoebird is a mistletoe-feeding specialist and mistletoe-feeding specialists have evolved independently... Wikipedia →