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18

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

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 Lewin's Honeyeater Yellow-faced Honeyeater Graceful Honeyeater Bridled Honeyeater Eungella Honeyeater Singing Honeyeater Mangrove Honeyeater Varied Honeyeater White-lined Honeyeater White-gaped Honeyeater White-eared Honeyeater Yellow 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 Brown Honeyeater Bar-breasted Honeyeater Brown-backed Honeyeater Rufous-throated Honeyeater Grey Honeyeater Tawny-crowned Honeyeater Rufous-banded 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 Olive-backed 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 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

Frontal view of an adult Brown-headed Honeyeater
[Deriah Aboriginal Area, NSW, September 2017]

Frontal view of a Brown-headed Honeyeater
[Deriah Aboriginal Area, NSW, September 2017]

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

Frontal view of a Brown-headed Honeyeater, now producing a much softer, guttural call
[Bullawa Creek SCA, NSW, September 2010]

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

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

Near-lateral view of a Brown-headed Honeyeater
[Deriah Aboriginal Area, NSW, September 2017]

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

Lateral view of a Brown-headed Honeyeater hiding in a dense shrub
[Deriah Aboriginal Area, NSW, November 2013]

Lateral view of a Brown-headed Honeyeater approaching a waterhole
[Deriah Aboriginal Area, NSW, March 2009]

Dorsal view of a Brown-headed Honeyeater
[Bullawa Creek SCA, NSW, September 2010]

Brown-headed Honeyeater hovering above a waterhole
[Pilliga scrub, NSW, September 2013]

Honeyeater variety bash: Brown-headed on the right, White-eared at the centre and Yellow-faced on the left
[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 bluish-grey eye skin crescent
[Pilliga scrub, NSW, May 2011]

Closer look at a fledgling Brown-headed Honeyeater approaching a waterhole
[Pilliga scrub, NSW, December 2011]

Three fledgling Brown-headed Honeyeaters waiting to be fed by their parents
[Mt. Kaputar NP, NSW, November 2008]

Two of the three fledgling Brown-headed Honeyeaters shown above, preening
[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 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: Territorial

Mobility: Dispersive

Elementary unit: Family clan/small flock

Food, Diet

Brown-headed Honeyeater feeding on the nectar of a Swamp Mahogany
[Munmorah SCA, NSW, July 2013]

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]

This Brown-headed Honeyeater has caught an insect
[Deriah Aboriginal Area, NSW, July 2013]

Brown-headed Honeyeater foraging for insects; this is one of the birds whose calls were recorded on 20 December 2014
[Near Barraba, NSW, December 2014]

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

Brown-headed Honeyeater approaching a waterhole; this is one of the Brown-headed Honeyeaters whose calls were recorded on 11 December 2019
[Near Deriah Aboriginal Area, NSW, December 2019]

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

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

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_20170903.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_20141220_3.mp3	brevirostris (NW NSW)	Warning call	© MD
brhdhon_20181127_4.m4a	brevirostris (NW NSW)	Annoyed/upset	© MD
brhdhon_20141220_8.mp3	brevirostris (NW NSW)	Feeding calls(?)	© 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.

Disclaimer: Comments are always welcome. We give no guarantee that the information presented on these pages is always correct or up-to-date. External links are marked as such and we take no responsibility for the contents of external pages. All images on this site are protected by copyright & used by permission of the respective owners. If you wish to reproduce them or any of the material presented on this web site, please contact us: We hereby acknowledge the original custodians of the land which is described on these pages, including the Gomeroi/Gamilaraay people of the North-west Slopes and Plains of NSW, and the traditional owners of other lands and nations within this country. We acknowledge elders past, present and emerging. Sovereignty was never ceded.          Last updated: Tue, 11 July 2023, 20:56 +00:00