By Nicholas Munday, Adelaide Urban Birding

The subject of this article is a little bird with enormous attitude: the plucky and vivacious New Holland Honeyeater (Phylidonyris novaehollandiae).

With a natural distribution spanning almost the entire coastline of the country south of the Tropic of Capricorn, it is a bird that flourishes within Australia’s major cities (with the exception of Darwin, where it is absent).

A member of the Meliphagidae or ‘Honeyeater’ family, it is perhaps the best known and most recognisable of these birds, and displays all the key traits typical of honeyeaters: a diet of almost entirely nectar, and slender beak and tongue designed for extracting it from flowers. 

It was also one of the first members of its family to be described following European colonisation, when it was given the common name ‘New Holland Honeyeater’ (as the term ‘Australia’ was not coined until after the naming of this bird).

There is low sexual dimorphism between males and females of this species, being almost identical in colourisation and only a slight size difference between the two sexes.  These birds possess a distinctive black-and-white streaked pattern across their chests, with a bright flash of yellow on their wings and tail, and a bold white eye.  

New Holland Honeyeaters are similar in appearance to another species also occasionally seen in suburban Adelaide, the closely related Crescent Honeyeater (Phylidonyris pyrrhopterus)  although that species prefers more densely vegetated areas and is usually only encountered in the Adelaide Hills and Foothills.  Another similar species, the White-Cheeked Honeyeater (Phylidonyris niger), can be found in Western Australia and east of the Great Dividing Range, but is absent from South Australia.

Outside of urban areas, New Holland Honeyeaters prefer heathland or woodland environments, with low shrubs interspersed with trees and an abundance of nectar-producing plants such as Grevilleas, Banksias, and Xanthorrheas (Yakkas or grass-trees).  High densities of these birds can be found in regions where these habitats persist (particularly the swamps of the Fleurieu Peninsula).  

Within the Adelaide region, New Holland Honeyeaters have taken very successfully to parks and gardens and have adapted to feed on introduced species such as Fuchsias and Salvias.  They can be found right across the Adelaide suburbs and are one of the most conspicuous honeyeater species in your Adelaide Park Lands (and generally more welcome than the more abundant Noisy Miners (Manorina melanocephala)).

Gregarious and social birds, small family groups will scout for the best feeding grounds and then defend them vigorously against intruders.  The love of sugar-rich nectar has driven the evolution of aggression as a ‘default setting’ in the vast majority of Melaphagids, and New Holland Honeyeaters are no exception!  

There are only a few species that will stand their ground against a noisy band of honeyeaters, and a large family can easily clear an area of competitors within minutes as they defend prized sources of nectar.

These birds can be found in virtually every Park of your Adelaide Park Lands at different times of year when certain plants are in flower, although the best places to look for them are where nectar producing trees and shrubs are in abundance.  

The Adelaide Botanic Garden (within Park 11) is a year-long stronghold for these birds, but other places to keep an eye out for them include G S Kingston Park / Wirrarninthi (including the West Terrace Cemetery) (Park 23) and Possum Park / Pirltawardli (Park 1).

There is an iNaturalist page, which can show you exactly where citizen scientists (like you!) have observed New Holland Honeyeaters in Adelaide and elsewhere.

To find out about other birds in your Adelaide Park Lands, check out our What Bird is That? series.

Nicholas Munday is an environment and planning lawyer with degrees in law and science (evolutionary biology and ecology) from the University of Adelaide. 

He has a strong interest in biodiversity conservation and runs the ‘Adelaide Urban Birding’ Instagram account (@adelaideurbanbirding), dedicated to his photography of native birds in the Adelaide metropolitan area.

In his free time, Nicholas is well-known in the Adelaide choral music and theatre communities and also enjoys bushwalking, writing, and, of course, photography.  

The opinions expressed in this article are entirely those of the author. This author is not affiliated with the Adelaide Park Lands Association Inc.