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18

Yellow-tufted Honeyeater (Lichenostomus melanops) Alternate name(s): "Whisky", "Yellow Whisker" Size: 17-23 cm Weight: 20-40 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 Yellow-tufted Honeyeaters are small to medium-sized nectar-eating birds. Their throat is yellow, the rest of the front is yellowish-grey. Their most prominent feature is a conspicuous, broad black eye stripe continuing on to the ear coverts, with a small, bright-yellow tuft at its end. The crown is yellow with grey streaks, while the mantle is greyish-brown. The wings are also greyish-brown, with yellowish-olive leading edges on the flight feathers. The tail is greyish-olive. The irises are dark-brown. The slightly down-curved bill is dark-grey; the legs and feet are grey. Race "cassidix" (the "Helmeted Honeyeater"; not shown here) has a yellow forehead and crown and a yellow tuft on its frons. Juveniles have duller colours than adults.

Taxonomy, classification See Yellow-tufted 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 Yellow-tufted Honeyeater is available HERE . Yellow-tufted Honeyeaters are endemic to eastern Australia. All three races of Yellow-tufted Honeyeaters are found in the south-eastern corner of the Australian continent. Nominate race "melanops" has a range that is restricted to the coastal side of the Great Dividing Range through NSW. In southern QLD (in a wide coastal strip up to about Rockhampton), on the inland side of the Great Dividing Range in NSW and throughout most of VIC race "meltoni" is found. Race "cassidix" (not shown here) is also called the "Helmeted Honeyeater"; it exists only in a very restricted range just to the East of Melbourne, VIC, and is critically endangered. Yellow-tufted Honeyeaters can usually be found in eucalypt forest with undergrowth, often near watercourses. They do not like to venture out into open country.

Sightings Click here for sighting information Race "melanops" B. Hensen reports spotting a Yellow-tufted Honeyeater, nominate race "melanops", at St. Albans, NSW, in September 2013. Race "meltoni" We have first come across Yellow-tufted Honeyeaters, race "meltoni", at Sawn Rocks, Mt. Kaputar NP, some 35 km North-East of Narrabri, NSW, in 2004. Spotted there reliably since then. Later they were also found at other locations on the western slopes of the Great Dividing Range, e.g. at Deriah Aboriginal Area, 30 km East of Narrabri, where they are also permanent residents, but also farther to the South. In December 2015 they were spotted by us at Munghorn Gap NR near Mudgee, NSW. C. Hayne reports spotting a Yellow-tufted Honeyeater, race "meltoni", at Whittaker's Lagoon, 20 km West of Moree, NSW, in August 2011. A Yellow-tufted Honeyeater, race "meltoni", was also spotted in dry woodland 25 km West of Moree in August 2011, at a location that is far outside the species' normal range. Yellow-tufted Honeyeaters, race "meltoni", were spotted by us in Girraween NP, near Stanthorpe, QLD, in January 2017, and in Mann River Nature Reserve, near Glen Innes, NSW, in July 2019. M. Eaton reports spotting Yellow-tufted Honeyeaters, race "meltoni", at Durikai SF, near Warwick, QLD, in August 2017. R. Plumtreereports spotting a Yellow-tufted Honeyeater, race "meltoni", at Sheep Station Creek, near Swifts Creek, East Gippsland, VIC, in July 2018.

Photos

Race "melanops"

ADULT

Sex unknown

Frontal view of a Yellow-tufted Honeyeater (photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[St. Albans, NSW, September 2013]

Race "meltoni"

ADULT

Sex unknown

Close-up frontal view of a Yellow-tufted Honeyeater (photo courtesy of V. Collins)
[Deriah Aboriginal Area, NSW, April 2021]

Close-up frontal view of a Yellow-tufted Honeyeater
[Deriah Aboriginal Area, NSW, August 2022]

Frontal view of a Yellow-tufted Honeyeater looking sideways
[Mt. Kaputar NP, NSW, February 2018]

Frontal view of a preening Yellow-tufted Honeyeater - note the prominent black and yellow tufts giving the species its name
[Mt. Kaputar NP, NSW, February 2018]

Close-up near-frontal view of a Yellow-tufted Honeyeater
[Deriah Aboriginal Area, NSW, August 2022]

Close-up near-frontal/ventral view of a Yellow-tufted Honeyeater (photo courtesy of V. Collins)
[Deriah Aboriginal Area, NSW, April 2021]

Near-lateral view of a Yellow-tufted Honeyeater approaching a water hole (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Durikai SF, near Warwick, QLD, August 2017]

Near-lateral view of a Yellow-tufted Honeyeater
[Girraween NP, QLD, January 2017]

Near-lateral view of a Yellow-tufted Honeyeater (photo courtesy of R. Plumtree)
[Sheep Station Creek, near Swifts Creek, East Gippsland, VIC, July 2018]

Lateral/ventral view of a Yellow-tufted Honeyeater
[Girraween NP, QLD, January 2017]

Lateral view of a Yellow-tufted Honeyeater (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Durikai SF, near Warwick, QLD, March 2018]

This view of a Yellow-tufted Honeyeater shows how the tufts can be erected
[Deriah Aboriginal Area, NSW, July 2013]

This view of a Yellow-tufted Honeyeater shows the typical honeyeater brush tongue - no offence intended
(photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Mann River Nature Reserve, near Glen Innes, NSW, July 2019]

Yellow-tufted Honeyeater in faint light
[Mt. Kaputar NP, NSW, January 2006]

Yellow-tufted Honeyeater photographed with a flash in fading evening light
[Mt. Kaputar NP, NSW, September 2007]

Moulting Yellow-tufted Honeyeater photographed in winter
[Deriah Aboriginal Area, NSW, August 2012]

Yellow-tufted Honeyeater at full reverse thrust (photo courtesy of R. Plumtree)
[Kooyoora State Park, near Bendigo, VIC, September 2018]

IMMATURE/JUVENILE

Probably a juvenile Yellow-tufted Honeyeater drinking water from a dam; note the absence of a tail
[Deriah Aboriginal Area, NSW, April 2008]

The same immature(?) Yellow-tufted Honeyeater as above, now a view of its front; note the blueish base of the bill that is not visible in the photos of adult birds
[Deriah Aboriginal Area, NSW, April 2008]

Behaviour

Social behaviour: Territorial

Mobility: Dispersive/ sedentary

Elementary unit: Pair

Food, Diet

Adults: Nectar, insects

Dependents: Insects

Water intake: Daily

Like many other honeyeaters, Yellow-tufted Honeyeaters do not exclusively feed on nectar, but take insects too. They are also known to feed on fruit and sap.

Yellow-tufted Honeyeater taking nectar from a box gum eucalypt
[Mt. Kaputar NP, NSW, August 2013]

Lateral view of a Yellow-tufted Honeyeater in a box gum eucalypt
[Mt. Kaputar NP, NSW, August 2013]

Yellow-tufted Honeyeater feeding in a clump of flowering Mistletoe
[Mt. Kaputar NP, NSW, April 2017]

A Yellow-tufted Honeyeater is so far the first and only bird we have seen feeding on nectar and/or pollen of an acacia tree (which we had seen so far only being used by insects)
[Mt. Kaputar NP, NSW, March 2013]

Yellow-tufted Honeyeaters preparing to visit Urn Heath
[Deriah Aboriginal Area, NSW, May 2013]

Yellow-tufted Honeyeater taking nectar from a flowering Urn Heath
[Deriah Aboriginal Area, NSW, June 2014]

Yellow-tufted Honeyeater and Fuscous Honeyeater hawking for insects from a Casuarina, together with more birds of the same species and with Singing Honeyeaters and White-plumed Honeyeaters, all hunting out of the one tree
[Mt. Kaputar NP, NSW, December 2012]

Yellow-tufted Honeyeater looking for insects under the bark of a eucalypt
[Deriah Aboriginal Area, NSW, July 2013]

Yellow-tufted Honeyeaters drinking water from a water hole (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Durikai SF, near Warwick, QLD, August 2017]

Mob of Yellow-tufted Honeyeaters approaching a water hole (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Durikai SF, near Warwick, QLD, August 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.

yelthon_20180131.m4a	meltoni (NW NSW)	Contact calls (Q&A)	© MD
yelthon_20220826_2.mp3	meltoni (NW NSW)	Contact calls (Q&A)	© MD
yelthon_20181002.m4a	meltoni (NW NSW)	Alarm calls (Aerial predator)	© MD
yelthon_20140612_2.mp3	meltoni (NW NSW)	Alarm calls (mob)	© MD
yelthon_20160730.m4a	meltoni (NW NSW)	(Feeding on psyllids)	© MD
yelthon_20181002_2.m4a	meltoni (NW NSW)	Feeding calls?	© MD
yelthon_20220301.m4a	meltoni (NW NSW)	Various	© MD
yelthon_20220901.mp3	meltoni (NW NSW)	?	© MD

On 13 March 2014 we noticed the following peculiarity: On five separate occasions Yellow-tufted Honeyeaters responded to a call by a White-throated Treecreeper. Our recordings suggest a direct relation between the White-throated Treecreeper call and the response. A single chirp did not warrant a response, but repeated calls did. The more vigorous the White-throated Treecreeper call, the more energetic the response by a group of Yellow-tufted Honeyeaters. The recordings are sorted by the intensity of the calls. In the last recording of the sequence, the Yellow-tufted Honeyeaters are "triggered" twice in quick succession.

yelthon_20140313_6.mp3	meltoni (NW NSW)	Response to other species	© MD
yelthon_20140313_5.mp3	meltoni (NW NSW)	Response to other species	© MD
yelthon_20140313_4.mp3	meltoni (NW NSW)	Response to other species	© MD
yelthon_20140313.mp3	meltoni (NW NSW)	Response to other species	© MD
yelthon_20140313_2.mp3	meltoni (NW NSW)	Response to other species	© MD

More Yellow-tufted 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: Sat, 8 October 2022, 3:04 +00:00