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Pied Honeyeaters are small nectar-eating birds. Their plumage is dimorphic, i.e. males and females are different. Male Pied Honeyeaters have an all-black head, throat and neck, except for a small blue skin patch under each eye. The rest of the front, from chest to undertail coverts, is white. The back, the uppertail and the wings are black, except for white wing patches. The long, slightly down-curved bill is black. Female Pied Honeyeaters have a greyish-brown crown and back, with dark-grey flight feathers and a scalloped wing patch. They have an equally greyish-brown narrow eye stripe on a lighter greyish-brown face, the colour of which continues into the chest that has some faint brown streaking. The belly and vent are near-white. The long, slightly down-curved bill is grey. The irises of both sexes are dark-brown and the legs and feet are grey. Juveniles are similar to females, but with a creamy to orange gape.

Twitcher's tip

Together with Black Honeyeaters and Banded Honeyeaters, Pied Honeyeaters are one of three small black-and-white honeyeater species found in Australia. Of these three, Pieed Honeyeaters are the only ones with an all-black head and neck and an otherwise all-white front.

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 Pied Honeyeater is available HERE .

NB: Reports on ebird of birds submitted by birdwatchers from the Australian Outback tend to be clustered along roads and public areas such as camp grounds; in such cases their distribution is not a good representation of the overall distribution of the species.

Pied Honeyeaters are endemic to Australia. They are very well adapted to life in the interior of the Australian continent. Except for the West coast of WA, they are not found anywhere along the Australian coastline, but almost everywhere in the interior of the continent (for details see a field guide). They avoid the far tropical North, the entire eastern half of QLD, the Great Dividing Range and coastal fringe of NSW and the South coast of Australia. They are found northward of a line connecting about Geraldton, WA, with Kalgoorlie, WA, through the Flinders Ranges, SA, just to the North of both Adelaide, SA, and Melbourne, VIC. From there, their inland distribution goes as far East as about Walgett, NSW, staying westward of a line connecting Walgett with Mt. Isa, QLD, and from there southward of a line connecting Mt. Isa with Eighty Mile Beach, WA (with the exception of the WA coast along the Gascoyne). They are only rarely found in the Nullarbor and parts of the Great Sandy Deserts to the North of the Nullarbor. They also avoid the south-western part of WA.

Pied Honeyeaters live in arid to semi-arid shrubland. They have a preference for flowering shrubs.

We have spotted Pied Honeyeaters at Currawinya NP, near Hungerford, QLD, in September 2012. On two occasions we saw them together with Crimson Chats.

J. Greaves reports spotting Pied Honeyeaters at Boolardy Station, Murchison, WA, in August 2016.

A. Allnutt found a Pied Honeyeater at Lake Cargelligo, NSW, in January 2019.

A Pied Honeyeater was also found by us at Eulah Creek, NSW, in January 2019.

We found a Pied Honeyeater at the Bowra Wildlife Sanctuary, near Cunnamulla, QLD, in June 2019, while M. Eaton reports their presence at Lake Bindegolly NP, near Thargomindah, QLD, at the same time.

M. Eaton reports finding Pied Honeyeaters at Kilcowera Station, between Thargomindah and Hungerford, QLD, in June 2020. The species was also found at Quilpie, QLD, in July 2021, and at Windorah, QLD, in August 2022.