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18

Pied Honeyeater (Certhionyx variegatus) Size: 15-18 cm Weight: 23-34 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 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 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. 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.

Taxonomy, classification See Pied 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 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.

Sightings Click here for sighting information 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.

Photos

ADULT

MALE

Frontal view of a male Pied Honeyeater (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Kilcowera Station, between Thargomindah and Hungerford, QLD, June 2020]

Frontal/ventral view of a male Pied Honeyeater; this is the bird whose calls were recorded on 17-18 June 2019
[Bowra Wildlife Sanctuary, near Cunnamulla, QLD, June 2019]

Frontal/ventral view of a male Pied Honeyeater; this is the bird whose calls were recorded on 17-18 June 2019
[Bowra Wildlife Sanctuary, near Cunnamulla, QLD, June 2019]

Frontal/ventral view of a male Pied Honeyeater issuing its call; this is the bird whose calls were recorded on 17-18 June 2019
[Bowra Wildlife Sanctuary, near Cunnamulla, QLD, June 2019]

Near-frontal view of a male Pied Honeyeater (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Windorah, QLD, August 2022]

Near-lateral view of a male Pied Honeyeater (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Lake Bindegolly NP, near Thargomindah, QLD, June 2019]

Near-lateral view of a male Pied Honeyeater issuing its call (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Windorah, QLD, August 2022]

Lateral view of a male Pied Honeyeater (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Quilpie, QLD, July 2021]

Lateral view of a male Pied Honeyeater (photo courtesy of J. Greaves)
[Boolardy Station, Murchison, WA, August 2016]

Near-dorsal view of a male Pied Honeyeater (photo courtesy of A. Allnutt)
[Lake Cargelligo, NSW, January 2019]

Near-dorsal view of a male Pied Honeyeater; click on image to also see a male Crimson Chat
[Currawinya NP, QLD, September 2012]

Near-dorsal/ventral view of a male Pied Honeyeater (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Kilcowera Station, between Thargomindah and Hungerford, QLD, June 2020]

Dorsal view of a male Pied Honeyeater (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Lake Bindegolly NP, near Thargomindah, QLD, June 2019]

FEMALE

Frontal view of a female Pied Honeyeater
[Currawinya NP, QLD, September 2012]

Lateral view of a female Pied Honeyeater
[Currawinya NP, QLD, September 2012]

Lateral/ventral view of a female Pied Honeyeater (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Windorah, QLD, August 2022]

Near-dorsal view of a female Pied Honeyeater
[Currawinya NP, QLD, September 2012]

Near-dorsal view of a male Pied Honeyeater (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Quilpie, QLD, July 2021]

Food, Diet

We have observed Pied Honeyeaters take not only nectar, but also fruit.

Lateral view of a Pied Honeyeater with a fruit
[Currawinya NP, QLD, September 2012]

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.

piedhon_jg_20160806.mp3	(Central WA)	Contact call (male)	© JG
piedhon_20190618_2.m4a	(SW QLD)	Contact calls (male); short sequence	© MD
piedhon_20190618.m4a	(SW QLD)	Contact calls (male); long sequence	© MD
piedhon_20190618_3.m4a	(SW QLD)	Contact calls; long sequence with other species	© MD
piedhon_20190617.m4a	(SW QLD)	Territorial call (male)	© MD
piedhon_me_20220815.mp3	(Ctl QLD)	Territorial calls (male)	© ME

More Pied 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: Wed, 31 August 2022, 1:26 +00:00