Yellow-faced Honeyeater

This relatively unspectacular and fairly common bird is perhaps too readily taken for granted. The Yellow-faced Honeyeater has an extensive Wikipedia entry with plenty of illuminating facts – “Over 100,000 birds were recorded passing Hastings Point in New South Wales over the course of a single day in May 1965”.

Like most honeyeater species, our ‘Gippsland’ Yellow-faced Honeyeaters come and go a bit as they chase the flowering patterns of many of their favourite native trees and shrubs. There seems to be a bird or two around almost all of the year. Also, like many honeyeaters, nectar is not their only dietary item: pollen, seeds, fruit and insects are commonly eaten. When in flower, the extensive colonies of mistletoe in woodlands in this district will often have Yellow-faced Honeyeaters in attendance.

While a yellow stripe below the eye hardly represents a ‘yellow face’, it is perhaps the defining visual characteristic of this bird. The frequent and cheery call, particularly early in the day, is another diagnostic tool used by bird watchers.

From its scientific name, Caligavis chrysops, the Yellow-faced Honeyeater should be called the Obscure Yellow-eyed Honeyeater: Caligavis = mist or fog (everything written about the bird is obscure!), and chrysops = golden eye.