The blue-faced honeyeater (Entomyzon cyanotis), also colloquially known as the bananabird, is a passerine bird of the honeyeater family, Meliphagidae.

It is the only member of its genus, and it is most closely related to honeyeaters of the genus Melithreptus. Three subspecies are recognised. At around 29.5 cm (11.6 in) in length, the blue-faced species is large for a honeyeater. Its plumage is distinctive, with olive upperparts, white underparts, and a black head and throat with white nape and cheeks. Males and females are similar in external appearance. Adults have a blue area of bare skin on each side of the face readily distinguishing them from juveniles, which have yellow or green patches of bare skin.

 

Blue-faced honeyeater - Canungra - Queensland - Australia

Found in open woodland, parks and gardens, the blue-faced honeyeater is common in northern and eastern Australia and southern New Guinea. It appears to be sedentary in parts of its range and locally nomadic in other parts; however, the species has been little studied. Its 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.

A large honeyeater ranging from 26 to 32 cm (10 to 12.5 in) and averaging 29.5 cm (11.6 in) in length, the adult blue-faced honeyeater has a wingspan of 44 cm (17.5 in) and weighs around 105 g (3.7 oz).In general shape, it has broad wings with rounded tips and a medium squarish tail. The sturdy slightly downcurved bill is shorter than the skull, and measures 3 to 3.5 cm (1.2 to 1.4 in) in length. It is easily recognised by the bare blue skin around its eyes. The head and throat are otherwise predominantly blackish with a white stripe around the nape and another from the cheek. The upperparts, including mantle, back and wings, are a golden-olive colour, and the margins of the primary and secondary coverts a darker olive-brown, while the underparts are white. Juveniles that have just fledged have grey head, chin and central parts of their breasts, and brown upperparts, and otherwise white underparts. After their next moult, they more closely resemble adults and have similar plumage, but are distinguished by their facial patches.The bare facial skin of birds just fledged is yellow, sometimes with a small patch of blue in front of the eyes, while the skin of birds six months and older has usually become more greenish, and turn darker blue beneath the eye, before assuming the adult blue facial patch by around 16 months of age. The blue-faced honeyeater begins its moult in October or November, starting with its primary flight feathers, replacing them by February. It replaces its body feathers anywhere from December to June, and tail feathers between December and July. 422 blue-faced honeyeaters have been banded between 1953 and 1997 to monitor movements and longevity. Of these, 109 were eventually recovered, 107 of which were within 10 km (6.2 mi) of their point of banding. The record for longevity was a bird banded in May 1990 in Kingaroy in central Queensland which was found dead on a road after 8 years and 3.5 months in September 1998, around 2 km (1.2 mi) away.

The blue-faced honeyeater produces a variety of calls, including a piping call around half an hour before dawn, variously described as ki-owt woik, queet, peet, or weet. Through the day, it makes squeaking noises while flying, and harsh squawks when mobbing. Its calls have been likened to those of the yellow-throated miner (Manorina flavigula), but are deeper. Blue-faced honeyeaters make a soft chirping around nestlings and family members.[29]

A distinctive bird, the blue-faced honeyeater differs in coloration from the duller-plumaged friarbirds, miners and wattlebirds, and it is much larger than the similarly coloured Melithreptus honeyeaters. Subspecies albipennis with its white wing patch has been likened to a khaki-backed butcherbird in flight.