CreatureData

Bell miner

Manorina melanophrys (Latham, 1801)

LCLeast Concernsongbirds

The bell miner (Manorina melanophrys) is a species in the family Meliphagidae, order Passeriformes. Recorded adults weigh 28.6 g to 32.3 g. Source checklists list it for 1 country: Australia. Its IUCN Red List status is Least Concern.

No freely licensed photo yet

Quick facts about the bell miner

Weight
28.6 g – 32.3 gsrc for Weight
Length
Not recorded
Lifespan
Not recorded
Diet
Invertivoresrc for Diet
Main food
Not recorded
Habitat
forestsrc for Habitat
Young per litter or clutch
2src for Young per litter or clutch
Lifestyle
Perchingsrc for Lifestyle
Migration
Sedentarysrc for Migration
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status
Countries on record
1 countrysrc for Countries on record

Photos of the bell miner

Only freely licensed photos are shown. Each carries its creator and licence.

1 more photo exists under a licence we cannot display: view at source.

Where does the bell miner live?

Countries where Catalogue of Life checklists list the species. Many checklists carry no country data, so the list is often incomplete. It is not a range map.

The bell miner is listed for 1 country.

Australia
  • Listed
  • Not listed
small islands are not drawn at this scale

The same countries as a list

  1. Australia

Listed by: ITIS (scope: global), through the Catalogue of Life.

What is the bell miner?

Quoted from WikipediaCC BY-SA 4.0

The bell miner or bellbird (Manorina melanophrys) is a colonial honeyeater, endemic to southeastern Australia. The common name refers to their bell-like call. "Miner" is an old alternative spelling of "myna", and is shared with other members of the genus Manorina. The birds feed almost exclusively on the dome-like coverings, referred to as lerps, of certain psyllid bugs.

Bell miners live in large, complex, social groups. Within each group, there are subgroups consisting of several breeding pairs, but also including a number of birds that are not currently breeding. The nonbreeders help in providing food for the young in all the nests within the subgroup, even though they are not necessarily closely related to them. The birds defend their colony area communally and aggressively, excluding most other passerine species. They do this in order to protect their territory from other insect-eating birds that would eat the bell lerps on which they feed. Whenever the local forests die back, due to increased lerp psyllid infestations, bell miners undergo a population boom.

The heritage listed mountain village of Bellbrook was named after the distinctive sound of local bellbirds in 1882.

From the Wikipedia article “Bell miner” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bell_miner&oldid=1380146645), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.

Is the bell miner endangered?

The bell miner is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.

  1. LCLeast Concern
  2. NTNear Threatened
  3. VUVulnerable
  4. ENEndangered
  5. CRCritically Endangered
  6. EWExtinct in the Wild
  7. EXExtinct

Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Least Concern species.

How is the bell miner classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumChordata
  3. classAves
  4. orderPasseriformes
  5. familyMeliphagidae
  6. genusManorina
  7. SpeciesManorina melanophrys (Latham, 1801)

Synonyms Cossyphus olivaceus, Manorina melanophrys tweedi, Manorina melanophrys yarra, Manorina viridis, Merops eupogon, Turdus melanophrys

Other names and names in other languages (30)
  • BellbirdEnglish
  • menjamel de bec curtCatalan
  • medosavka zvonkohlasáCzech
  • aderyn cloch AwstraliaWelsh
  • BjældefuglDanish
  • GlockenschwatzvogelGerman
  • GlockenhonigfresserGerman
  • sonorila mielmanĝuloEsperanto
  • Mielero cejinegroSpanish
  • kellomesikkoFinnish
  • Méliphage à sourcils noirsFrench
  • zeleni medojedCroatian
  • harangozó mézmadárHungarian
  • Manorina campanaraItalian
  • Uccello campanello australianoItalian
  • スズミツスイJapanese
  • tilindžiuojančioji manorinaLithuanian
  • BelhoningeterDutch
  • bjellehonningeterNorwegian
  • miodożer zielonyPolish
  • papa-mel-sinoPortuguese
  • papa-mel-sininhoPortuguese
  • Манорина-колокольчикRussian
  • medárik zvonivýSlovak
  • Zvonasti minerSerbian
  • klockhonungsstareSwedish
  • Rastıklı BalkuşuTurkish
  • манорина зеленаUkrainian
  • 鐘礦鳥Chinese
  • 矿吸蜜鸟Chinese

Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistWikidataIUCN Red List

Relatives of the bell miner

Other species in the same genus Manorina.

LC, Least Concern
Noisy miner (Manorina melanocephala)

Noisy miner

Manorina melanocephala

Meliphagidae

CompareBell miner vs Noisy minerBell miner vs Yellow-throated minerBell miner vs Black-eared miner

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

How big is the bell miner?

An adult bell miner weighs 28.6 g – 32.3 g, according to values recorded on Wikidata.

Where does the bell miner live?

Catalogue of Life checklists list the bell miner for 1 country: Australia. Checklist coverage is uneven, so the true range may be wider.

Is the bell miner endangered?

The bell miner is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, meaning it is not currently at risk of extinction.

What kind of animal is the bell miner?

The bell miner (Manorina melanophrys) belongs to the family Meliphagidae in the order Passeriformes.

Sources and how to cite this page

Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.

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APA

CreatureData. (2026). Bell miner (Manorina melanophrys). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/bell-miner

MLA

“Bell miner (Manorina melanophrys).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/bell-miner.

BibTeX
@misc{bell_miner_2026,
  title = {Bell miner (Manorina melanophrys)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/bell-miner},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}