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Bar-breasted Honeyeater (Ramsayornis fasciatus) Alternate name(s): "Fasciated Honeyeater", "White-breasted Honeyeater" Size: 13-15 cm Body mass: 11-16 g

Australia: Family Group 18 Family Group 18 Table Yellow Wattlebird Red Wattlebird Little Wattlebird Western Wattlebird Regent Honeyeater Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater Striped Honeyeater Helmeted Friarbird Silver-crowned Friarbird Noisy Friarbird Little Friarbird Blue-faced Honeyeater Bell Miner Yellow-throated Miner Noisy Miner Macleay's Honeyeater Tawny-breasted Honeyeater Yellow-spotted Honeyeater Graceful Honeyeater Lewin's Honeyeater Yellow-faced Honeyeater Bridled Honeyeater Eungella Honeyeater Singing Honeyeater Mangrove Honeyeater Varied Honeyeater White-lined Honeyeater Kimberley Honeyeater White-gaped Honeyeater Yellow Honeyeater White-eared Honeyeater Yellow-throated Honeyeater Yellow-tufted Honeyeater Purple-gaped Honeyeater Grey-headed Honeyeater Yellow-plumed Honeyeater Grey-fronted Honeyeater Fuscous Honeyeater Yellow-tinted Honeyeater White-plumed Honeyeater Green-backed Honeyeater Brown Honeyeater Bar-breasted Honeyeater Brown-backed Honeyeater Rufous-throated Honeyeater Grey Honeyeater Tawny-crowned Honeyeater Rufous-banded Honeyeater White-streaked Honeyeater New Holland Honeyeater White-cheeked Honeyeater Crescent Honeyeater White-fronted Honeyeater Painted Honeyeater Black-chinned Honeyeater White-throated Honeyeater Strong-billed Honeyeater White-naped Honeyeater Brown-headed Honeyeater Black-headed Honeyeater Eastern Spinebill Western Spinebill Banded Honeyeater Black Honeyeater Pied Honeyeater Scarlet Honeyeater Red-headed Honeyeater Dusky Honeyeater Garden Sunbird Gibberbird Crimson Chat Orange Chat Yellow Chat White-fronted Chat Thumbnails page Family group table Index of bird names Habitat pages Key plants Birds home page

Similar species

Description     Classification     Distribution     Sightings     Photos     Breeding     Nest     Eggs     Behaviour     Food     Call/s

Physical description Click here for a physical description Bar-breasted Honeyeaters are very small nectar-eating birds. They have a mostly dark-grey back, with lighter grey streaks, while the front is mostly light-grey, with darker grey barring on the chest and the sides of the belly. The crown is scalloped light and dark grey, while the face and throat are mostly light-grey, except for a single darker streak down each side of the throat. The flight feathers and the tail are grey. The irises are dark-brown. The slightly down-curved bill is dark-grey, while the legs and feet are pinkish-grey.

Taxonomy, classification See Bar-breasted Honeyeater at Wikipedia .

Range, habitat, finding this species Click here for information on habitat and range The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found, based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org . The global distribution of the Bar-breasted Honeyeater is available HERE . Bar-breasted Honeyeaters are endemic to Australia. They populate parts of the tropical North of the continent, from the Kimberley, WA, in the West, via the Top End of the NT, along the South coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria and all over Cape York peninsula in QLD. In addition, they are found along a strip along the East coast of QLD, down to the tropic of Capricorn. They are only rarely found farther inland, mostly in the NT and western inland QLD, down to the geographical latitude of Mt. Isa, QLD. Bar-breasted Honeyeaters have a preference for mangrove, paperbark and other open woodland.

Sightings Click here for sighting information B. Hensen reports spotting Bar-breasted Honeyeaters at Casuarina Coastal Reserve, Darwin, NT, in March 2013 and again in July 2019. Since then several contributors and we ourselves have found Banded Honeyeaters in various locations of the Top End of the NT.

Photos

ADULT

Sex unknown

Frontal view of an adult Bar-breasted Honeyeater with pollen stuck to its frons looking sideways (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Kakadu NP, NT, July 2020]

Frontal/ventral view of a Bar-breasted Honeyeater
[Pine Creek, NT, August 2014]

Frontal/ventral view of a Bar-breasted Honeyeater looking sideways (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Palmerston Golf Course, Palmerston, NT, July 2020]

Frontal/ventral view of a Bar-breasted Honeyeater looking sideways; this is the bird whose calls were recorded on 3 September 2019 (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[Tumbling Waters, near Darwin, NT, September 2019]

Near-frontal view of a Bar-breasted Honeyeater looking sideways (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[Leanyer Swamp, Darwin, NT, October 2019]

Near-frontal view of a Bar-breasted Honeyeater (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Palmerston Golf Course, Palmerston, NT, July 2020]

Near-lateral view of a Bar-breasted Honeyeater (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[Darwin, NT, August 2019]

Lateral view of a Bar-breasted Honeyeater (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Kakadu NP, NT, July 2020]

Lateral/ventral view of a Bar-breasted Honeyeater looking towards the observer (photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Casuarina Coastal Reserve, Darwin, NT, March 2013]

Close-up lateral view of a Bar-breasted Honeyeater (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[McMinns Lagoon, near Darwin, NT, January 2019]

Lateral view of a Bar-breasted Honeyeater
[Pine Creek, NT, August 2014]

Lateral/ventral view of a Bar-breasted Honeyeater (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Holmes Jungle Nature Park, Darwin, NT, July 2020]

Lateral/ventral view of a Bar-breasted Honeyeater (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[McMinns Lagoon, near Darwin, NT, September 2018]

Lateral/ventral view of a Bar-breasted Honeyeater (photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Darwin River Dam, near Darwin, NT, August 2017]

Near-dorsal view of a Bar-breasted Honeyeater (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[Leanyer Swamp, Darwin, NT, October 2019]

Ventral view of a Bar-breasted Honeyeater in flight (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[McMinns Lagoon, near Darwin, NT, January 2019]

Lateral view of a Bar-breasted Honeyeater banking to land (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[McMinns Lagoon, near Darwin, NT, January 2019]

IMMATURE/JUVENILE

Frontal view of a juvenile Bar-breasted Honeyeater looking sideways (photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Darwin River Dam, near Darwin, NT, August 2017]

Near-frontal views of a juvenile Bar-breasted Honeyeater checking its surroundings, left and right
(photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[Daly River Road, near Nauiyu, NT, July 2020]

Near-frontal/ventral view of a juvenile Bar-breasted Honeyeater (photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Casuarina Coastal Reserve, Darwin, NT, July 2019]

Breeding information

Breeding season: Sep - Jan

Eggs: 3 - 4

Incubation period: ?

Fledging age: ?

Given the right conditions, Bar-breasted Honeyeaters can breed any time of the year.

Nest

"bungobittah", "lar", "malunna", "jindi" [bundjalung] = nest [Aboriginal]

Type: Domed hanging bottle

Material: Paperbark strips

Height above ground: 1 - ? m

Frontal view into the opening of a Bar-breasted Honeyeater nest, with a chick peeking out (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[Knuckey Lagoon, near Darwin, NT, May 2021]

Lateral view of a Bar-breasted Honeyeater nest (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[Knuckey Lagoon, near Darwin, NT, May 2021]

One of the Bar-breasted Honeyeater owners of the nest shown above (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[Knuckey Lagoon, near Darwin, NT, May 2021]

Bar-breasted Honeyeater nest in a totally open setting, low above water (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[Fogg Dam CR, NT, April 2023]

Bar-breasted Honeyeater at the entrance of its nest (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[Fogg Dam CR, NT, April 2023]

Eggs

"boyanga", "booyanga", "derinya", "dirandil", "koomura", "mirk", "ngampu", "nooluk", "pateena", "pum-pum" = Egg; "dirundirri" = eggs [Aboriginal]; "gawu" = eggs [gamilaraay]

Size: 21 x 14 mm

Colour: Creamy, with light-brown speckles

Shape: Tapered oval

Behaviour

Social behaviour: Communal

Mobility: Dispersive

Elementary unit: Pair/family clan/mob

Food, Diet

We have seen Bar-breasted Honeyeaters taking both nectar and insects.

Bar-breasted Honeyeater taking nectar from a Grevillea (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[Lee Point, Darwin, NT, July 2021]

Bar-breasted Honeyeater taking nectar from melaleuca flowers (photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Casuarina Coastal Reserve, Darwin, NT, July 2019]

Near-lateral view of a Bar-breasted Honeyeater taking nectar from small flowers
[Pine Creek, NT, August 2014]

Dorsal view of a Bar-breasted Honeyeater taking nectar head down
[Pine Creek, NT, August 2014]

Call(s)/Song

For this species we have recorded the following call(s)/song. The interpretation of their meaning is our own; comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

barbhon_pb_20190903.m4a

(Top End, NT)

Defending food source (against Brown Honeyeater)

© PB

More Bar-breasted Honeyeater sound recordings are available at xeno-canto.org .

These pages are largely based on our own observations and those of our contributors. The structure of these bird pages is explained HERE. For more salient facts on any bird species please refer to a field guide.

Would you like to contribute photos or sound recordings to this site? If interested, please CLICK HERE. Credits to contributors are given HERE.