Pied Honeyeater - profile

Scientific name: Certhionyx variegatus 
 Conservation status in NSW: Vulnerable

Description

The male Pied Honeyeater is a distinctive small, black and white honeyeater with white wing-bar, rump and tail-panels, and a bluish-grey wattle below the eye. The female is greyish-brown, with a strong pattern of pale edging to feathers on the wing.

Location and habitat

Distribution
 Widespread throughout acacia, mallee and spinifex scrubs of arid and semi-arid Australia. Occasionally occurs further east, on the slopes and plains and the Hunter Valley, typically during periods of drought.

• Inhabits wattle shrub (primarily Mulga, Acacia aneura), mallee, spinifex and eucalypt woodlands, usually when shrubs are flowering; feeds on nectar, predominantly from various species of emu-bushes (Eremophila spp.); also from mistletoes and various other shrubs (e.g. Brachysema spp. and Grevillea spp.); also eats saltbush fruit, berries, seed, flowers and insects.
• Highly nomadic, following the erratic flowering of shrubs; can be locally common at times.
• Constructs a relatively large cup-shaped nest , usually robust, although occasionally loose, constructed of grasses and fine twigs, bound with spider webs, in the fork of a shrub or tree up to 5 m above the ground.

Regional information
This species is found in the following catchment management authority regions. Click on a region name to see more details about the distribution, vegetation types and habitat preference of the species in that region.

• Central West
• Lachlan
• Lower Murray/Darling
• Murray
• Murrumbidgee
• Western

Threats

• The clearing of nectar-producing shrubs (Eremophila spp.; Grevillea spp.; Brachysema spp.) reduces food supplies and may interrupt broadscale nomadic movements.
• Grazing has a similar but less immediate impact compared to clearing, although many of the preferred food shrubs appear immune to grazing effects.

Recovery strategies

Priority actions are the specific, practical things that must be done to recover a threatened species, population or ecological community. The Department of Environment and Conservation has identified 4 priority actions to help recover the Pied Honeyeater in New South Wales.

What needs to be done to recover this species?

• Reduce stock intensity of, or exclude grazing in, some areas to allow regeneration of vegetation for habitat.
• Retain understorey shrubs and allow them to complete their life cycle (i.e. seed set, germination, establishment, growth to maturity).
• Prevent clearing of habitat.

References

• Pizzey, G. and Knight, F. (2003) The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia 7th Edition. Menkhorst, P. (ed). HarperCollins.