genus Melithreptus. It has been classified in that genus by Glen Storr, although others felt it more closely related to wattlebirds (Anthochaera) or miners (Manorina). A 2004 molecular study has resolved that it is closely related to Melithreptus after all. Molecular clock estimates indicate that the blue-faced honeyeater diverged from the Melithreptus honeyeaters somewhere between 12.8 and 6.4 million years ago, in the Miocene epoch. It differs from them in its much larger size, brighter plumage, more gregarious nature, and larger patch of bare facial skin. Molecular analysis has shown honeyeaters to be related to the Pardalotidae (pardalotes), Acanthizidae (Australian warblers, scrubwrens, thornbills, etc.), and the Maluridae (Australian fairy-wrens) in the large superfamily Meliphagoidea. "Blue-faced honeyeater" has been designated as the official common name for the species by the International Ornithologists' Union (IOC). Early naturalist George Shaw had called it the blue-faced honey-sucker in 1826. Other common names include white-quilled honeyeater, and blue-eye. Its propensity for feeding on the flowers and fruit of bananas in north Queensland has given it the common name of banana-bird. A local name from Mackay in central Queensland is pandanus-bird, as it is always found around Pandanus palms there. It is called morning-bird from its dawn calls before other birds of the bush. Gympie is a Queensland bushman's term. Thomas Watling noted a local indigenous name was der-ro-gang. John Hunter recorded the term gugurruk (pron. "co-gurrock"), but the term was also applied to the black-shouldered kite (Elanus axillaris). It is called (minha) yeewi in Pakanh, where minha is a qualifier meaning 'meat' or 'animal', and (inh-)ewelmb in Uw Oykangand and Uw Olkola, where inh- is a qualifier meaning 'meat' or 'animal', in three aboriginal languages of central Cape York Peninsula Three subspecies are recognised: E. c. albipennis was described by John Gould in 1841 and is found in north Queensland, west through the Gulf of Carpentaria, in the Top End of the Northern Territory, and across into the Kimberley region of Western Australia. It has white on the wings and a discontinuous stripe on the nape. The wing-patch is pure white in the western part of its range, and is more cream towards the east. It has a longer bill and shorter tail than the nominate race. The blue-faced honeyeater also decreases in size with decreasing latitude, consistent with Bergmann's rule. Molecular work supports the current classification of this subspecies as distinct from the nominate