ESTIMATING SEXES OF NEW HOLLAND AND WHITE-CHEEKED HONEYEATERS FROM HEAD-BILL MEASUREMENTS
| Posted: |
11/08/2021 |
| Author(s): |
D. P. Armstrong, Graham H. Pyke |
We tested the degree to which New Holland and White-cheeked Honeyeaters could be sexed on
the basis of head-bill measurements. Both species showed bimodal distributions of head-bill measurements,
with inter-modal troughs at 41.25 mm in New Holland Honeyeaters and at 40.75 mm in Whitecheeked
Honeyeaters. We proposed that birds with head-bill measurements greater than the
inter-modal trough were probably males, and tested this method on birds whose sexes were known
from brood patches or observations of nesting behaviour. Of 77 New Holland Honeyeaters (22 male,
55 female) and 47 White-cheeked Honeyeaters (11 males, 36 females), 91 per cent of birds were
correctly sexed from their head-bill measurements. We investigated the possibility of using this
technique on Yellow-faced Honeyeaters, but found this species to have a unimodal distribution of
head-bill lengths.
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