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Brown-headed Honeyeater (Melithreptus brevirostris) Aboriginal name(s): Race "leucogenys": "djiok*", "berilberil*" (WA) Size: 13-14 cm Body mass: 11-20 g (heaviest at the southern end of their range)

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Similar species

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

Physical description Click here for a physical description Brown-headed Honeyeaters are very small nectar-eating birds. There are 5 races that show small differences in plumage. Their front, from the throat to the undertail coverts, is light-grey with a brown tinge. The head is brown, except for a pale-buff band across the nape of the neck. The back is olive-grey. The flight feathers are darker grey, with thin olive leading edges. The uppertail is grey, with olive outer edges. The eyes with dark irises are surrounded by greyish eye skin rings; the gape is also brownish-grey. The short, pointy, slightly down-curved bill is dark-grey. The legs and feet are the colour of skin. Juveniles have more bluish eye skin rings and less colour contrast in their more brownish plumage.

Taxonomy, classification See Brown-headed 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 Brown-headed Honeyeater is available HERE . Brown-headed Honeyeaters are endemic to Australia. In total there are five races of Brown-headed Honeyeaters in Australia. Nominate race "brevirostris" lives in the Great Dividing Range, including the inland slopes, of NSW and VIC. South of the Hunter River in NSW they also populate the coastal fringe, through VIC and into the south-eastern corner of SA, with one exception: Just to the East and West of Melbourne, in small coastal areas, race "wombeyi" is found. Farther inland, throughout the semi-arid plains of southern QLD (South of about Roma) and NSW (out to about Wilcannia in the West) and along the lower Murray-Darling Basin race "pallidiceps" resides. This race also reaches the Great Dividing Range and the coastal fringe in south-eastern QLD. On Eyre peninsula and a narrow coastal fringe in SA, as well as south-western WA (but not the south-western tip, including Perth, itself) one finds race "leucogenys". Race "magnirostris" lives only on Kangaroo Island, SA. Brown-headed Honeyeaters can be found in various types of woodland and open eucalypt forest with some undergrowth, including mallee.

Sightings Click here for sighting information Race "brevirostris" Brown-headed Honeyeaters are very inconspicuous birds. It took us three years to first identify a bird. A Brown-headed Honeyeater, race "brevirostris", was first spotted by us in March 2006, then again in October 2006, 20 km South of Narrabri, NSW. Since then, Brown-headed Honeyeaters, race "brevirostris", have been found by us and some of our contributors in woodland and scrub in various locations in inland north-western NSW. They are found also by us semi-regularly in various parts of the Pilliga scrub. C. Hayne reports observing a flock of 30 or more Brown-headed Honeyeaters, race "brevirostris", passing through very quickly, in scattered Coolibah woodland surrounded by broadacre farmland, 23 km West of Moree, in February 2014. R. Plumtree reports finding Brown-headed Honeyeaters, race "brevirostris", occasionally around Ensay, East Gippsland, VIC. Race "pallidiceps" M. Eaton reports finding Brown-headed Honeyeaters, race "pallidiceps", at Durikai SF, near Warwick, QLD, in August 2017. We spotted Brown-headed Honeyeaters, race "pallidiceps", in Gundabooka NP, NSW, in September 2017. Race "leucogenys" M. Eaton reports spotting Brown-headed Honeyeaters, race "leucogenys", at Lake Gilles, SA, in June 2023.

Photos

Race "brevirostris"

ADULT

Sex unknown

Close-up frontal view of a Brown-headed Honeyeater looking sideways
[Near Deriah Aboriginal Area, NSW, April 2026]

Close-up frontal view of a Brown-headed Honeyeater looking sideways; this bird may be hyper-melanistic
[Near Deriah Aboriginal Area, NSW, April 2026]

Frontal view of a Brown-headed Honeyeater looking sideways while issuing its territorial call
[Bullawa Creek SCA, NSW, September 2010]

Near-frontal view of a Brown-headed Honeyeater looking sideways
[Near Eulah Creek, NSW, September 2019]

Close-up near-lateral view of a Brown-headed Honeyeater
[Near Deriah Aboriginal Area, NSW, April 2026]

Close-up near-lateral view of a Brown-headed Honeyeater
[Near Deriah Aboriginal Area, NSW, April 2026]

Near-lateral view of a Brown-headed Honeyeater approaching a waterhole
[Near Deriah Aboriginal Area, NSW, September 2019]

Near-lateral view of a Brown-headed Honeyeater
[Near Eulah Creek, NSW, September 2019]

Near-dorsal view of a Brown-headed Honeyeater looking sideways
[Bullawa Creek SCA, NSW, September 2010]

Honeyeater variety bash: Brown-headed on the right, White-eared Honeyeater at the centre and Yellow-faced Honeyeater on the left, all coming together at the local waterhole
[Pilliga scrub, NSW, May 2011]

IMMATURE/JUVENILE

Family of Brown-headed Honeyeaters at a waterhole...
[Pilliga scrub, NSW, May 2011]

... on the left-hand side one can see a juvenile Brown-headed Honeyeater; note the orange bill and the bluish-grey eye skin crescent
[Pilliga scrub, NSW, May 2011]

Lateral view of a fledgling Brown-headed Honeyeater approaching a waterhole
[Pilliga scrub, NSW, December 2011]

Distant frontal/ventral view of two of in total three fledgling Brown-headed Honeyeaters waiting to be fed by their parents
[Mt. Kaputar NP, NSW, November 2008]

Race "pallidiceps"

ADULT

Sex unknown

Frontal view of an an adult Brown-headed Honeyeater
[Gundabooka NP, NSW, September 2017]

Near-lateral/ventral view of a Brown-headed Honeyeater
[Gundabooka NP, NSW, September 2017]

Race "leucogenys"

ADULT

Sex unknown

Frontal view of an adult Brown-headed Honeyeater (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Lake Gilles, SA, June 2023]

Near-frontal view of a Brown-headed Honeyeater (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Lake Gilles, SA, June 2023]

Behaviour

Social behaviour: Communal

Mobility: Dispersive

Elementary unit: Family clan/small flock

Food, Diet

Brown-headed Honeyeater searching for insects in an ironbark eucalypt
[Deriah Aboriginal Area, NSW, November 2013]

Brown-headed Honeyeater prying an insect out of the bark of an eucalypt (photo courtesy of R. Plumtree)
[Ensay, Doctors Flat Road, East Gippsland, VIC, October 2019]

Frontal/ventral view of a Brown-headed Honeyeater with its catch, an insect
[Deriah Aboriginal Area, NSW, July 2013]

Near-dorsal/ventral view of a Brown-headed Honeyeater foraging for insects
[Near Barraba, NSW, December 2014]

Near-frontal view of Brown-headed Honeyeaters approaching a waterhole together with a White-eared Honeyeater
[Near Deriah Aboriginal Area, NSW, September 2019]

Near-lateral Brown-headed Honeyeater approaching a waterhole
[Near Deriah Aboriginal Area, NSW, December 2019]

Close-up view of 3 Brown-headed Honeyeaters drinking water
[Near Deriah Aboriginal Area, NSW, April 2026]

Lateral view of 2 Brown-headed Honeyeaters having a drink (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Pilliga scrub, NSW, November 2018]

Three species of honeyeaters having a drink: Brown-headed Honeyeater, Yellow-faced Honeyeater and White-eared Honeyeater
[Pilliga scrub, NSW, November 2018]

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.

brhdhon_20250313.m4a	brevirostris (NW NSW)	Contact calls(?)	© MD
brhdhon_20181127_3.m4a	brevirostris (NW NSW)	Contact calls(?)	© MD
brhdhon_20181127.m4a	brevirostris (NW NSW)	Contact calls(?)	© MD
brhdhon_20250916.m4a	brevirostris (NW NSW)	Contact calls(?) (+ Rufous Whistler)	© MD
brhdhon_20251206.m4a	brevirostris (NW NSW)	Departure (mob)	© MD
brhdhon_20181127_4.m4a	brevirostris (NW NSW)	Annoyed/upset	© MD
brhdhon_20191211.m4a	brevirostris (NW NSW)	Various	© MD
brhdhon_20210909.m4a	brevirostris (NW NSW)	Foraging for insects (+ Grey Fantail)	© MD
brhdhon_20191211_2.m4a	brevirostris (NW NSW)	?	© MD
brhdhon_20170920.m4a	pallidiceps (W NSW)	Contact calls(?)	© MD

More Brown-headed 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.