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Blue-faced Honeyeaters (Adults & Juvenile)
Entomyzon cyanotis
-27.6669, 153.029
Field Notes
Description:
The Blue-faced Honeyeater, also colloquially known as the Bananabird, is a passerine bird of the Honeyeater family Meliphagidae (which also includes the Friar Bird and Noisy Miner). At almost 30 cm (12 in) in length, it is large for a honeyeater. Its plumage is distinctive, with olive on top and white underneath, and a black head and throat with white nape and cheeks. Males and females are similar in appearance. Adults have a blue area of bare skin on each side of the face, whereas juveniles have yellow or green patches of bare skin. Diet is mostly composed of invertebrates, supplemented with nectar and fruit. They often take over and renovate old babbler nests, in which the female lays and incubates two or rarely three eggs.
Habitat:
Found in tropical, sub-tropical and wetter temperate or semi-arid zones. It is mostly found in open forests and woodlands close to water, as well as monsoon forests, mangroves and coastal heathlands. It is often seen in banana plantations, orchards, farm lands and in urban parks, gardens and golf courses.
Notes:
These three were having a lovely time in the bird feeder - that is when they weren't squabbling with the Rainbow Lorikeets and Noisy Miners. They have a particularly hostile arrangement with the Noisy Miners, another passerine bird of the same family. http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/24670094 I wonder if it's because of this that they see each other as competitors for the same food sources. Regardless, it's always a noisy event when these two species clash.
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