mdahlem.net WWW

Aust birds    Bird names   News   1-26    Habitats    Key plants    Glossary    Plumage    Nests    Tips    Thumbnails    Gen. info    Sponsors    Photos for sale
NON-PASSERINES     1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9    10     11     12     13     14	15     16     17     18     19     20     21     22     23     24     25     26     PASSERINES
Common names sorted alphabetically: A   B   C   D   E   F   G   H   I   J   K   L   M   N   O   P   Q   R   S   T   W   Y

18

Rufous-throated Honeyeater (Conopophila rufogularis) Alternate name(s): "Red-throated Honeyeater" Size: 13-14 cm Weight: 8-14 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 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

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

Physical description Click here for a physical description Rufous-throated Honeyeaters are very small nectar-eating birds. They have their name because of their prominent, rufous-coloured throat patch. The top of the head is brownish-grey. Under the eyes there are whitish bands connecting with the light-rufous breast. The belly and vent are off-white. The back is greyish-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 dark-grey, while the legs and feet are pinkish-grey. Juveniles have an off-white throat.

Taxonomy, classification See Rufous-throated 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-throated Honeyeater is available HERE . Rufous-throated Honeyeaters are endemic to northern Australia. They populate, with a few exceptions, the entire area to the North of a line connecting Broome, WA, with Mt. Isa, QLD, and Yeppoon, QLD. Along the QLD coastline, they can be found as far South as Fraser Island. Also in the tropical North they occur on some offshore islands. They are not usually found in parts of Arnhemland, NT, and a narrow coastal strip along the East coast of Cape York peninsula, down to about Cairns, QLD. Rufous-throated Honeyeaters have a preference for riverine environments, especially paperbark forest along inland watercourses.

Sightings Click here for sighting information B. Hensen reports spotting a Rufous-throated Honeyeater at the Darwin River Dam, NT, in August 2013. We first spotted Rufous-throated Honeyeaters in a park in Pine Creek, NT, and at Fogg Dam CR, NT, in August 2014. H. Mouritsen reports spotting Rufous-throated Honeyeaters near Darwin, NT, in October 2015. J. Greaves spotted Rufous-throated Honeyeaters at Ivanhoe Crossing, Kununurra, WA, in January 2016. B. Hensen reports spotting a Rufous-throated Honeyeater in Pine Creek, NT, in July 2018. M. Mearns found a Rufous-throated Honeyeater at Karumba, QLD, in September 2019. M. Eaton found Rufous-throated Honeyeaters at Yellow Water, Kakadu NP, NT, in July 2020. P. Brown reports spotting a Rufous-throated Honeyeater along the road to the Giwining/Flora River NP, NT, in November 2018, and another one at the Sewage Treatment Plant in Katherine, NT, in July 2020.

Photos

ADULT

Sex unknown

Frontal view of an adult Rufous-throated Honeyeater
[Pine Creek, NT, August 2014]

Near-frontal view of a Rufous-throated Honeyeater (photo courtesy of J. Greaves)
[Ivanhoe Crossing, Kununurra, WA, January 2016]

Near-lateral view of a Rufous-throated Honeyeater (photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Darwin River Dam, NT, August 2013]

Near-lateral view of a Rufous-throated Honeyeater, different stance (photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Darwin River Dam, NT, August 2013]

Lateral view of a Rufous-throated Honeyeater (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Kakadu NP, NT, July 2020]

Lateral view of a Rufous-throated Honeyeater (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Kakadu NP, NT, July 2020]

Lateral/ventral view of a Rufous-throated Honeyeater (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Kakadu NP, NT, July 2020]

Lateral/ventral view of a Rufous-throated Honeyeater (photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Pine Creek, NT, July 2018]

Near-dorsal view of a Rufous-throated Honeyeater (photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Darwin River Dam, NT, August 2013]

Dorsal view of a Rufous-throated Honeyeater (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Kakadu NP, NT, July 2020]

IMMATURE/JUVENILE

Frontal view of a juvenile Rufous-throated Honeyeater; note the off-white throat
[Pine Creek, NT, August 2014]

Frontal view of a juvenile Rufous-throated Honeyeater; note the off-white throat
[Pine Creek, NT, August 2014]

Lateral view of a juvenile Rufous-throated Honeyeater looking at the observer (photo courtesy of P Brown)
[Sewage Treatment Plant, Katherine, NT, July 2020]

Lateral view of a juvenile Rufous-throated Honeyeater
[Pine Creek, NT, August 2014]

Lateral view of a juvenile Rufous-throated Honeyeater
[Pine Creek, NT, August 2014]

Lateral view of a juvenile Rufous-throated Honeyeater
[Pine Creek, NT, August 2014]

Lateral view of a juvenile Rufous-throated Honeyeater hopping from branch to branch
[Pine Creek, NT, August 2014]

Food, Diet

Rufous-throated Honeyeater approaching a roadside puddle for a drink and a bath (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[Road to Giwining/Flora River NP, NT, November 2018]

This Rufous-throated Honeyeater has found a different source of water (photo courtesy of M. Mearns)
[Karumba, QLD, 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.

rufthon_20140818.m4a

(Top End, NT)

Contact calls(?)

© MD

More Rufous-throated 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, 2 February 2021, 5:24 +00:00