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Rufous-banded Honeyeater (Conopophila albogularis) Alternate name(s): "White-throated Honeyeater*", "Rufous-breasted Honeyeater" Size: 12-13 cm Body mass: 10-14 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 Rufous-banded Honeyeaters are very small nectar-eating birds. They have a grey head, except for a white throat. From under the ear coverts a broad rufous breast band (that gives the species its name) spans across the front. The belly and vent are off-white. The flanks are light-brown. The back is brown, except for the flight feathers, which have wide yellow-olive leading edges, giving the folded wing a prominent yellow-olive appearance. The irises are brown. The slightly down-curved bill is black, while the legs and feet are pinkish-grey. Juveniles only have an inconspicuous breast band and have a browner head.

Taxonomy, classification See Rufous-banded 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 Rufous-banded Honeyeater is available HERE . Rufous-banded Honeyeaters are found in Australia and parts of New Guinea. In Australia they populate only the far-northern coastal fringes. In the NT they are found also farther inland, down to a line from the NT/WA border to Katherine, NT, in addition to the coast from the NT/WA border through to eastern Arnhemland. In QLD they populate the entire coastline of Cape York peninsula, from the southern-most tip of the Gulf of Carpentaria in the West to Cape Melville in the East. They also occur on several offshore islands to the North of these two regions on the continent. Rufous-banded Honeyeaters have a preference for mangroves, swamps and riparian forest.

Sightings Click here for sighting information B. Hensen reports spotting Rufous-banded Honeyeaters at Casuarina Coastal Reserve, Darwin, NT, in March 2013. B. Hensen and P. Brown have since found Rufous-banded Honeyeaters in various locations in and around Darwin, NT. We first spotted Rufous-banded Honeyeaters in a park in Pine Creek, NT, in August 2014. J. Greaves reports spotting Rufous-banded Honeyeaters at Yellow Water, Kakadu NP, NT, in November 2014. H. Mouritsen reports finding Rufous-banded Honeyeaters in various locations in and around Darwin, NT, in October 2015. P. Brown reports finding Rufous-banded Honeyeaters semi-regularly in various locations of the Top End, NT, including Timber Creek, NT, which is on the south-western edge of their range. In March 2020 they were found in Nakara, Darwin, NT, where a pair was seen feeding two dependent juveniles at the time. M. Eaton found Rufous-banded Honeyeaters in various locations of the Top End of the NT in July 2020.

Photos

ADULT

Sex unknown

Frontal view of a Rufous-banded Honeyeater; note that the white throat giving the species its name of "albogularis" (and its alternate common name of "White-throated Honeyeater") is not unique - that name is reserved for another species
[Pine Creek, NT, August 2014]

Frontal view of a Rufous-banded Honeyeater, different posture (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[Sanctuary Lakes Park, Palmerston, NT, March 2018]

Frontal/ventral view of a Rufous-banded Honeyeater (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[Sanctuary Lakes Park, Palmerston, NT, March 2018]

Partly obscured frontal/ventral view of a Rufous-banded Honeyeater (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[Sanctuary Lakes Park, Palmerston, NT, February 2018]

Near-frontal/ventral view of a Rufous-banded Honeyeater (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[Darwin, NT, May 2018]

Near-lateral/ventral view of a Rufous-banded Honeyeater (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[Sanctuary Lakes Park, Palmerston, NT, March 2018]

Lateral view of a Rufous-banded Honeyeater (photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Casuarina Coastal Reserve, Darwin, NT, March 2013]

Lateral/ventral view of a Rufous-banded Honeyeater, looking upwards to check the underside of the foliage for psyllids and lerps
[Pine Creek, NT, August 2014]

Lateral/ventral view of a Rufous-banded Honeyeater
[Pine Creek, NT, August 2014]

Near-dorsal view of a Rufous-banded Honeyeater (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[Leanyer Swamp, Darwin, NT, October 2018]

Near-dorsal view of a Rufous-banded Honeyeater, here seen preening (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[Leanyer Swamp, Darwin, NT, October 2018]

Near-dorsal view of a Rufous-banded Honeyeater (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[Casuarina Coastal Reserve, Darwin, NT, October 2020]

Near-dorsal/ventral view of a Rufous-banded Honeyeater
[Pine Creek, NT, August 2014]

Ventral views of a Rufous-banded Honeyeater hanging upside down, looking for psyllids or lerps
[Pine Creek, NT, August 2014]

IMMATURE/JUVENILE

Frontal view of a juvenile Rufous-banded Honeyeater; note the pale gape and the inconspicuous breast band
(photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Kakadu NP, NT, July 2020]

Near-lateral view of a juvenile Rufous-banded Honeyeater (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Kakadu NP, NT, July 2020]

Lateral view of a juvenile Rufous-banded Honeyeater; note the pale gape and the inconspicuous breast band
(photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[Tiwi Park, Darwin, NT, June 2018]

Lateral view of a juvenile Rufous-banded Honeyeater (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[Tiwi Park, Darwin, NT, June 2018]

Lateral view of a juvenile Rufous-banded Honeyeater (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Mary River Wilderness Retreat, NT, July 2020]

Adult, left, with a dependent juvenile Rufous-banded Honeyeater (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[Nakara, Darwin, NT, March 2020]

Lateral view of a dependent juvenile Rufous-banded Honeyeater exploring what is, and what isn't, edible; this is one of the two birds whose calls were recorded on 3 March 2020 (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[Nakara, Darwin, NT, March 2020]

Near-dorsal view of a dependent juvenile Rufous-banded Honeyeater; this is one of the two birds whose calls were recorded on 3 March 2020 (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[Nakara, Darwin, NT, March 2020]

Near-dorsal view of a dependent juvenile Rufous-banded Honeyeater; this is one of the two birds whose calls were recorded on 3 March 2020 (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[Nakara, Darwin, NT, March 2020]

Breeding information

Breeding season: Sep - Mar

Eggs: 2 - 3

Incubation period: 12 days

Fledging age: 11-13 days

Given the right conditions, Rufous-banded Honeyeaters can breed almost any time of the year. The period listed in the table above is the core breeding period. They usually have two broods per season.

Nest

"bungobittah", "lar", "malunna", "jindi" [bundjalung] = nest [Aboriginal]

Type: Suspended basket

Material: Bark fibres, plant down, webs, soft lining

Height above ground: 1 - 10 m

Near-dorsal view of a Rufous-banded Honeyeater working on its nest (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[Fogg Dam CR, NT, March 2021]

Very well-hidden Rufous-banded Honeyeater nest (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[East Point Reserve, Darwin, NT, April 2020]

Rufous-banded Honeyeater at its nest, which is suspended from the outermost twigs at the end of a thin branch; note how, characteristically, one side is much higher than the other (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[Nightcliff, Darwin, NT, November 2020]

Rufous-banded Honeyeater delivering food for its chicks, which are still so small that the adult bird must reach far down into the nest (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[Nightcliff, Darwin, NT, November 2020]

Rufous-banded Honeyeater waiting for a moment after a food delivery, to see whether a poo sac needs to be removed - this is how birds keep their nests clean
(photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[Nightcliff, Darwin, NT, November 2020]

Frontal/ventral view of a Rufous-banded Honeyeater departing from its nest (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[Fogg Dam CR, NT, May 2018]

Rufous-banded Honeyeater nest in the crown of a tree, close to branches that can carry the weight of a predator; note the difference compared to the nest shown above, where no such weight-carrying branch is present
(photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[Fannie Bay, Darwin, NT, May 2018]

Two days later the Rufous-banded Honeyeater nest had been destroyed and the chicks had been taken
(photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[Fannie Bay, Darwin, NT, May 2018]

Eggs

"boyanga", "booyanga", "derinya", "dirandil", "koomura", "mirk", "ngampu", "nooluk", "pateena", "pum-pum" = Egg; "dirundirri" = eggs [Aboriginal]; "gawu" = eggs [gamilaraay]

Size: 18 x 13 mm

Colour: Creamy, with sparse light-brown speckles

Shape: Tapered oval

Behaviour

Social behaviour: Territorial

Mobility: Dispersive

Elementary unit: Solitary/pair

Food, Diet

Ventral view of a Rufous-banded Honeyeater hanging upside down, taking a psyllid and/or lerp
[Pine Creek, NT, August 2014]

Near-dorsal/ventral view of a Rufous-banded Honeyeater with its prey, a flying insect (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[Fogg Dam CR, NT, May 2018]

Near-dorsal/ventral view of a Rufous-banded Honeyeater with its catch, a caterpillar
(photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[Fogg Dam CR, NT, May 2018]

Lateral view of a Rufous-banded Honeyeater coming in for a drink from a man-made waterhole
(photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Lee Point, Darwin, NT, July 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.

rufbhon_20140817.m4a	(Top End, NT)	Contact call?	© MD
rufbhon_pb_20190107.m4a	(Top End, NT)	Contact calls?	© PB
rufbhon_20140820.m4a	(Top End, NT)	Various	© MD
rufbhon_pb_20200303.m4a	(Top End, NT)	Begging calls (juveniles)	© PB

More Rufous-banded 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.

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