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Blue-faced HoneyeaterAlternative names: "Banana-bird*", "Blue-eye" |
Sightings
Blue-faced Honeyeaters are regular customers at the bottlebrush trees in our garden near Narrabri, New South Wales. They come in groups of 2 or more and make themselves heard upon arrival (and during their stay).
Also sighted on a trip to the east of the dividing range, in the area from Armidale to Dorrigo, New South Wales.
They are also a dominant species throughout the eastern half of Queensland, where we have seen them in July 2009. Most notably, they were present in large numbers at Carnarvon Gorge, which is on the western edge of their habitat.
Photos
Adult Blue-faced Honeyeater (subspecies "cyanotis") in a Bottlebrush tree in first morning light (I; click on image for larger version)
Adult Blue-faced Honeyeater (subspecies "cyanotis") in a Bottlebrush tree in first morning light (II; click on image for larger version)
Lateral view of a Blue-faced Honeyeater (subspecies "cyanotis") displaying the full splendour of its blue face in brilliant sunlight (click on image for larger version)
Frontal view of an immature Blue-faced Honeyeater (subspecies "cyanotis") in a bottlebrush tree (click on image for larger version)
Lateral view of an immature Blue-faced Honeyeater (subspecies "cyanotis"); click on photo for full-size display
Here an immature Blue-faced Honeyeater preening itself (click on image for larger version)
Clutch of immature Blue-faced Honeyeaters; photo courtesy of C. Kellenberg (click on image for larger version)
Habits
One can set the clock by the regular habits of Blue-faced Honeyeaters around our place. They appear almost all year round, around sunrise and sunset. Only when there are lots of flowers on our trees they will also come at other times of the day. They visit as pairs or families, rarely alone.
Blue-faced Honeyeaters are omnivores - they use their long tongues not only for retrieving honey or nectar from blossoms, but also to catch small insects, for example from cracks and cavities in walls of buildings or the bark of trees.
Blue-faced Honeyeater searching the bark of an ironbark eucalypt for insects (click on image for larger version)