Blue-faced Honeyeater - BirdForum Opus

Subspecies albipennis
Photo © by Hans&Judy Beste
Mount Molloy, North Queensland, Australia, 1984

Entomyzon cyanotis

Identification

Juvenile
Photo © by tcollins
Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia, April 2009

26–32·3 cm (10¼-12¾ in)
Adult

• White underparts
• Olive back and wings
• Bare blue skin around eye
• Blackish head and throat
• White stripe round nape
  

Juvenile

• Fledgling is 'red/brown' changing to bronze then yellow maturing through green and finally blue face patch.

Distribution

Southeast Asia and Australasia
South-east Asia: Indonesia
Australasia: Papua New Guinea, Australia, New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia.

Taxonomy

Subspecies

Photo © by Hans&Judy Beste
Taromeo, S.E. Queensland, July 2018

There are 4 subspecies^[1]:

• E. c. harterti:

• Southern New Guinea (Trans-Fly lowlands)

• E. c. albipennis:

• Northern Australia (Kimberley, Western Australia to north-western Queensland)

• E. c. griseigularis:

• Northern Queensland (Cape York Peninsula)

• E. c. cyanotis:

• Eastern Australia (east and central Queensland to Victoria and south-eastern South Australia)

Habitat

It is found in tropical, sub-tropical and wetter temperate or semi-arid zones, mostly in open forests and woodlands close to water, mangroves and coastal heathland, wallum areas. Open scrub and suburban gardens.

Behaviour

The greet each other by lowering the head and opening the mouth in a wide yawning gape.

Diet

The diet includes insects, pollen, fruit, (especially bananas or grapes) and nectar.

Breeding

It builds a bowl shaped nest from twigs and bark. The clutch consists of 2 buff-pink eggs, splotched with red-brown or purple. The nest is parasitised by the Asian Koel.

Sub-adults help feed the juveniles.

Vocalisation

Call: ki-owt.

References

1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2017. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2017, with updates to August 2017. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
2. Avibase
3. Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved July 2018)
4. Wikipedia
5. BF Member observations

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Blue-faced Honeyeater. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 10 May 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Blue-faced_Honeyeater

External Links

Search for photos of Blue-faced Honeyeater in the gallery