Yellow-faced Honeyeater
Caligavis chrysops
The Yellow-faced Honeyeater (Caligavis chrysops) is a common honeyeater found only in Australia, weighing about 17 g. The yellow-faced honeyeater is a small to medium-sized bird in the honeyeater family, Meliphagidae.
About the Yellow-faced Honeyeater
The yellow-faced honeyeater is a small to medium-sized bird in the honeyeater family, Meliphagidae. It takes its common and scientific names from the distinctive yellow stripes on the sides of its head. Its loud, clear call often begins twenty or thirty minutes before dawn. It is widespread across eastern and southeastern Australia, in open sclerophyll forests from coastal dunes to high-altitude subalpine areas, and woodlands along creeks and rivers. Comparatively short-billed for a honeyeater, it is thought to have adapted to a diet of flies, spiders, and beetles, as well as nectar and pollen from the flowers of plants, such as Banksia and Grevillea, and soft fruits. It catches insects in…
Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
How to identify it
The yellow-faced honeyeater is a medium-small, greyish-brown bird that takes its common name from distinctive yellow stripes on the sides of the head. Yellow feathers form a narrow stripe above the gape, which broadens and curves below the eye to end in a small white patch of feathers on the ear coverts. Above the yellow stripe is a black eye stripe which is broken by a small yellow to off-white patch behind the eye, and below is another distinct black stripe running the length of the yellow line. Voice: One of the first birds heard in the morning, the yellow-faced honeyeater utters calls that are full and loud, and extremely varied. The male sings from a roost for up to an hour, beginning twenty or thirty minutes before dawn. The song is a running series of cheerful notes sounding like chick-up, chick-up, from which its common name of quitchup is derived.
What the Yellow-faced Honeyeater sounds like
Where it lives
When to see it
The Yellow-faced Honeyeater can be seen all year round, with peak activity in October. It is a resident species across most of its range.
Easily confused with
Quick questions
- How do you identify a Yellow-faced Honeyeater?
- The yellow-faced honeyeater is a medium-small, greyish-brown bird that takes its common name from distinctive yellow stripes on the sides of the head. Full identification notes are on this page.
- How big is a Yellow-faced Honeyeater?
- The Yellow-faced Honeyeater is a small sized bird weighing about 17 g.
- Where can you see a Yellow-faced Honeyeater?
- The Yellow-faced Honeyeater is endemic to Australia, which is the only country where it occurs.
- What does a Yellow-faced Honeyeater sound like?
- You can listen to 2 field recordings of the Yellow-faced Honeyeater on this page, contributed to xeno-canto under open licences.
- What birds look similar to a Yellow-faced Honeyeater?
- The Yellow-faced Honeyeater is most easily confused with the Black-throated Honeyeater and the Obscure Honeyeater.
- Is the Yellow-faced Honeyeater endangered?
- The Yellow-faced Honeyeater is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List.
Learn the Yellow-faced Honeyeater for real
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