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Painted Honeyeater (Grantiella picta) Size: 15.5-16 cm Body mass: 18-25 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

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

Physical description Click here for a physical description Painted Honeyeaters are small nectar-eating birds. Apart from small white tufts at the ends of the ear coverts, their heads are all-black. The black plumage continues down the back, down to the uppertail. The front is white from throat to undertail coverts, with sparse black streaks on the sides of the neck and the flanks. The black flight feathers and the outer tail feathers have bright-yellow edges. This gives the folded wings a bright yellow spot when perched. Male Painted Honeyeaters have jet-black upperparts while those of females tend to be more brownish. The irises of both sexes are dark-brown. The slightly downward-curved bill is bright orange; the legs and feet are grey. Juvenile Painted Honeyeaters have more brownish colours and a greyish bill.

Taxonomy, classification See Painted 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 Painted Honeyeater is available HERE . Painted Honeyeaters are endemic to Australia. They are found only in the East and South-east of the Australian continent. Their range includes the Great Dividing Range and its western slopes, into the open plains, and extends from about Melbourne, VIC, northward to the tropic of Capricorn in QLD. They are not found along the narrow coastal fringe all across this latitude range, but only in the ranges or further inland. The limits of their range in the North and West are not well-determined. There are few and scattered sightings in central and northern QLD and parts of the NT. Painted Honeyeaters can usually be found in open forest, also roadside vegetation, preferably with ironbark or box eucalypts or casuarinas. They have a strong preference for (e.g. needle-leaf) mistletoe flowers in those host trees, most of all in casuarinas.

Sightings Click here for sighting information We have seen Painted Honeyeaters in 2006, from September onwards, in various locations in the area of Narrabri, NSW (20 km North-East of town and 30 km North and 20 km South-West of Narrabri). Painted Honeyeaters are seen only infrequently around Narrabi. When they appear, they can be reliably found in various areas with flowering mistletoe. Areas where they are found consistently are, e.g., Brigalow Park NR and surrounding areas (with both casuarinas and brigalow), the swamp associated with Yarrie Lake, near Wee Waa, NSW, but also in parts of the western Pilliga scrub, e.g. at Merriwindi SCA, about 10 km north of Baradine, NSW. A single Painted Honeyeater was heard calling twice from the crown of a eucalypt tree at Eulah Creek in mid-September 2013, but was not seen. Two juvenile Painted Honeyeaters were spotted near Pilliga, NSW, in March 2025. C. Hayne reports spotting a Painted Honeyeater in woodland 5 km East of Warialda, NSW. R. Plumtree reports spotting Painted Honeyeaters in the area of Ensay, East Gippsland, VIC, in December 2017, and another at Mount Korong, VIC, in November 2018. A. Allnutt found a Painted Honeyeater at Lake Cargelligo, NSW, in January 2019. M. Eaton reports spotting a Painted Honeyeater at Jondaryan, QLD, in December 2023.

Photos

ADULT

PAIR

Many bird species exhibit sexual dimorphism, i.e., male and female have differing appearances which can be quite subtle.
Male Painted Honeyeaters, left, have a black cap, while that of females is more brownish.

MALE

Full-frontal view of an adult Painted Honeyeater; the black helmet suggests that this may be a male (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Yarrie Lake, near Wee Waa, NSW, November 2018]

Close-up frontal/ventral view of a male(?) Painted Honeyeater
[Yarrie Lake, near Wee Waa, NSW, November 2017]

Near-frontal view of a male(?) Painted Honeyeater looking at the observer (photo courtesy of R. Plumtree)
[Ah Chow Road, Ensay, East Gippsland, VIC, December 2017]

Close-up frontal/ventral view of a male(?) Painted Honeyeater checking out the local food supply
[Yarrie Lake, near Wee Waa, NSW, November 2017]

Lateral/ventral view of a male(?) Painted Honeyeater
[Yarrie Lake, near Wee Waa, NSW, November 2017]

Near-dorsal/ventral view of a male(?) Painted Honeyeater showing clearly the edge lining on the wing and tail feathers
[Yarrie Lake, near Wee Waa, NSW, November 2017]

Close-up ventral view of a male(?) Painted Honeyeater issuing its call
[Yarrie Lake, near Wee Waa, NSW, November 2017]

FEMALE

Frontal view of a Painted Honeyeater; the brownish upperparts indicate that this is a female (photo courtesy of A. Allnutt)
[Lake Cargelligo, NSW, January 2019]

Near-lateral view of a female(?) Painted Honeyeater
[Yarrie Lake, near Wee Waa, NSW, November 2017]

IMMATURE/JUVENILE

Near-frontal/ventral view of a juvenile Painted Honeyeater
[Near Pilliga, NSW, February 2008]

Near-frontal/ventral view of a juvenile Painted Honeyeater
[Near Narrabri, NSW, February 2008]

Partly obscured near-lateral/ventral view of a juvenile Painted Honeyeater - note the partly dark bill and the absence of streaking
[Near Narrabri, NSW, February 2008]

Lateral view of a juvenile Painted Honeyeater looking towards the observer
[Near Pilliga, NSW, February 2008]

Lateral view of a juvenile Painted Honeyeater
[Near Pilliga, NSW, February 2008]

Lateral view of a juvenile Painted Honeyeater
[Near Pilliga, NSW, February 2008]

Lateral/ventral view of a juvenile Painted Honeyeater
[Near Pilliga, NSW, February 2008]

Near-dorsal view of a juvenile Painted Honeyeater
[Near Pilliga, NSW, February 2008]

Ventral view of a juvenile Painted Honeyeater (photo courtesy of R. Plumtree)
[Ah Chow Road, Ensay, East Gippsland, VIC, December 2017]

Ventral view of a juvenile Painted Honeyeater
[Near Narrabri, NSW, February 2008]

Behaviour

Social behaviour: Territorial?

Mobility: Migratory/dispersive

Elementary unit: Solitary/pair/small mob

Food, Diet

Painted Honeyeaters specialise on nectar from various types of mistletoe. We have seen them in mistletoe in casuarinas and eucalypts.

Additional information

There is a separate page describing how a Painted Honeyeater peels a mistletoe fruit.

Near-frontal view onto the upperparts of an immature Painted Honeyeater feeding head down on the nectar of needle-leaf mistletoe blossoms in a casuarina; note the still mostly dark bill
[Near Narrabri, NSW, February 2008]

Where there is good food, fair numbers of Painted Honeyeater can appear (in this case round about 20, 3 of which are seen here in a dead tree top)
[Yarrie Lake, near Wee Waa, NSW, October 2013]

Painted Honeyeaters' favourite food - nectar from the flowers of a casuarina, with flowering mistletoe
[Near Narrabri, NSW, February 2008]

Painted Honeyeaters' favourite food - nectar from the flowers of a casuarina, with flowering mistletoe
[Near Narrabri, NSW, February 2008]

Close-up lateral/ventral view of a Painted Honeyeater that was observed feeding on the fruit of mistletoe in a casuarina; the technique it used is described HERE
[Yarrie Lake, near Wee Waa, NSW, November 2017]

Near-lateral view of a Painted Honeyeater feeding on the fruit of mistletoe in a casuarina; the technique it used is described HERE
[Yarrie Lake, near Wee Waa, NSW, November 2017]

Frontal view of a Painted Honeyeater holding a peeled mistletoe fruit
[Yarrie Lake, near Wee Waa, NSW, November 2017]

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.

painted_20231018.m4a	(NW NSW)	Contact call?	© MD
painted_20171027_8.m4a	(NW NSW)	Contact call? (+ Peaceful Dove)	© MD
painted_20171027_10.m4a	(NW NSW)	Abbreviated contact call?	© MD
painted_20171027_1.m4a	(NW NSW)	Claiming/defending food source?	© MD
painted_20171027_9.m4a	(NW NSW)	Claiming/defending food source?	© MD
painted_20171027_4.m4a	(NW NSW)	Claiming/defending food source?	© MD
painted_20171027_5.m4a	(NW NSW)	Claiming/defending food source? (Q&A)	© MD
painted_20171027_3.m4a	(NW NSW)	Competing with Mistletoebird	© MD
painted_20171027_6.m4a	(NW NSW)	Competing with Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater	© MD
painted_20171027_7.m4a	(NW NSW)	Competing with Singing Honeyeater	© MD
painted_20171027_2.m4a	(NW NSW)	Various	© MD
painted_20171115_2.m4a	(NW NSW)	?	© MD
painted_20241122.m4a	(NW NSW)	? (+ White-plumed Honeyeater)	© MD

More Painted 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.