The Black-eared Miner

Abstract

The historical (pre-1981) literature regarding all aspects of the ecology of the Black-eared Miner Manorina melanotis is shown to be unreliable. The Black-eared Miner is shown to have historically occurred in only a small portion of, and not throughout, the 'Murray Mallee'. A claim that the Black-eared and Yellow-throated Miners M. flavigula were reproductively isolated in the same locality through occupancy of different habitats, before widespread clearing, is unfounded. Other claims, that morphometric differences exist between the Black-eared and Yellow-throated Miners, that there are significant structural differences between the habitats of the Black-eared Miner and apparent intergrades, and that the Black-eared Miner requires mallee Eucalyptus spp. habitats of at least 55 to 60 years post-fire age, are all disputed. The Black-eared and Yellow-throated Miners are considered to be conspecific. The Black-eared Miner, as currently defined, could debatably be either a phenotypically stable taxon within the Yellow-throated Miner or one extreme of the phenotypic variation of a Murray Mallee population of the Yellow-throated Miner, depending on the interpretation of the extensive variation in plumage characters exhibited by apparent intergrades. Regardless of the true taxonomic status of the Black-eared Miner, all sight records of the Black-eared Miner are considered suspect and the last positively identified Black-eared Miner is considered to be a specimen collected west of Murrayville, Victoria, in 1949. Consequently, it is considered inappropriate that conservation efforts and resources be focused on the apparently already extinct Black-eared Miner, especially as phenotypically variable miners, including a range of dark phenotypes, continue to occupy denser mallee habitats and no decline of miners is evident within that niche.