Blue-faced Honeyeater

The blue-faced honeyeater is a large honeyeater, averaging 29.5 cm in length, with olive upperparts, white underparts and a black head and throat. Adults are easily recognized by the bare blue skin around each eye, which in young birds is yellow or green. It is common in open woodland, parks and gardens across northern and eastern Australia and southern New Guinea. Most of its diet is invertebrates, mainly insects caught in the branches and foliage of trees, supplemented with nectar, pollen and fruit. It is usually seen in pairs, family groups or small flocks, and often takes over and renovates old babbler nests.

About the blue-faced honeyeater

The blue-faced honeyeater is a large Australian songbird in the honeyeater family, Meliphagidae, recognized by a patch of bare blue skin around each eye. It is the only species in its genus and is most closely related to the Melithreptus honeyeaters. It lives in open woodland, forest, parks and gardens across northern and eastern Australia and southern New Guinea.

At an average of 29.5 cm (11.6 in), it is big for a honeyeater. Adults have golden-olive upperparts, white underparts and a mostly black head and throat, broken by a white band across the nape and a white stripe from the cheek. The wings are broad with rounded tips, and the tail is medium length and squarish. The sturdy, slightly downcurved bill measures 3–3.5 cm (1.2–1.4 in).

Males and females look alike. The age of a bird, though, is easy to read from its face. Newly fledged birds have yellow bare skin around the eye, sometimes with a touch of blue in front. By about six months it turns greenish, then darker blue beneath the eye, and the full adult blue patch appears at roughly 16 months.

The bird's scientific name, Entomyzon cyanotis, roughly means "blue-eared" bird that "drinks inside," from Greek roots. Three subspecies are recognized. The northern form, albipennis, has a white wing patch that shows in flight; the nominate cyanotis runs down the east of the continent; and griseigularis of southwestern New Guinea and Cape York is much smaller. In general, the species gets smaller toward the equator.

The English names are colorful too. In north Queensland the bird is called the banana-bird for its habit of feeding on banana flowers and fruit. Around Mackay it is the pandanus-bird, and its calls before dawn earned it the name morning-bird.

Behavior and diet

Blue-faced honeyeaters are social and can be noisy. They usually travel in pairs, family groups or small flocks, sometimes alongside yellow-throated miners. Feeding birds keep in touch with soft chirps, and the day starts with a piping call about half an hour before dawn, written down as "ki-owt," "queet" or "weet."

Most of the diet is insects. The birds work through branches and foliage in groups of up to seven, sometimes up to 30, and take cockroaches, termites, grasshoppers, lerps, scale insects, shield bugs, many kinds of beetles, flies, moths, bees, ants and spiders. Small lizards are also on the list. They mostly catch prey by sallying out from a perch, and also probe and glean.

The rest of the diet is plant material: nectar, pollen and berries, plus cultivated bananas and especially grapes. Birds prefer cup-shaped flowers, such as some eucalypts and bloodwoods, ahead of brush-shaped banksias and melaleucas. They are often described as inquisitive and friendly and will raid campsites for fruit, insects and leftover jam, honey or milk.

These honeyeaters are also bold defenders. They mob goshawks, rufous owls and Pacific koels, and parents dive at intruders near the nest, including dogs, owls and goannas. A study of remnant woodland in cleared farmland in central Queensland found fewer bird species in patches frequented by blue-faced honeyeaters or noisy miners, an effect strongest in smaller patches. There is some evidence of cooperative breeding, with helper birds assisting a pair.

Breeding runs from June to January, with one or two broods. Rather than always building from scratch, pairs often renovate the old stick nests of other birds, most commonly the grey-crowned babbler. The female alone incubates two, rarely three, buff-pink eggs for 16–17 days. Chicks hatch blind and sparsely downy, open their eyes at about four days, and are fed by both parents. The laughing kookaburra has been recorded preying on broods, and cuckoos sometimes lay their eggs in the nests.

Range and habitat

In Australia the blue-faced honeyeater ranges from the Kimberley in the northwest across the Top End and into Queensland, where it covers Cape York and the eastern and central parts of the state. It is patchy in New South Wales, common in northern Victoria, and reaches southeastern South Australia along the Murray River. In New Guinea it lives in the far southeast of Indonesia's Papua province and across the Trans-Fly region of Papua New Guinea, and it has been recorded on the Aru Islands.

It occurs from sea level to around 850 m (2,790 ft), rarely 1,000 m (3,300 ft). Habitats include rainforest, dry eucalypt forest, open woodland, Pandanus thickets, paperbark stands, mangroves, watercourses and the wetter parts of semi-arid regions. It also adapts well to towns, using parks, gardens and golf courses.

Many populations seem to stay put year-round, especially in the Northern Territory, Queensland and New South Wales. South of the Tropic of Capricorn, birds come and go, but this looks like nomadic wandering rather than true seasonal migration. Banding results back up the stay-at-home picture: of 109 banded birds recovered, 107 were found within 10 km (6.2 mi) of where they were banded.

Conservation status

The blue-faced honeyeater is rated Least Concern on the IUCN Red List. It is common across much of northern and eastern Australia and readily uses suburban parks and gardens.

The species is not well studied, and much of its social life and movement is still poorly understood. Keeping one in an aviary in New South Wales requires a Class 2 licence, including at least two years' experience keeping birds.