BLUE-FACED HONEYEATER

Blue-faced  Honeyeater  Entomyzon cyanotis

 

 

I had a short while ago, pruned the ragged branches off a pittosporum tree overhanging the roof of my house.

The tree has always been a bit of a nuisance, dropping sticky seed pods over the pathways. After pruning it continued to be a bit of an eyesore and a further nuisance,, it bled runnels of sap down the trunk. Awful stuff  it gets on one's hands and clothes.  

 

However, the honeyeaters seem to like it. This pair seem to be a parent bird and a juvenile young. The adult bird has the brilliant blue face, while the younger bird retains the green - yellow facial skin. 

I have lived here in Kilmore for many years, but only in the last five to ten years have these Bluefaced honeyeaters become established. Now they are a common sight amongst the flowering flowering eucalypts around the golf course and in the established gardens of the housing areas.

 

Each day now, there are Bluefaced honeyeaters at the dribbles and puddles of sap. Where  a  branch has come away, there is a small cup in the trunk. I assume it holds a small pool of hardened sap. Perhaps it also contains insects. I  can't get up that far to see. Whatever, the honeyeaters like what is there. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They seem unperturbed when I am about. Under the tree I have my wood splitting block. The honeyeaters continue to feed as I split logs, not two metres under where they are feeding. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 It is lovely to have such  trusting, colorful and noisy neighbours whilst I work,