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Banded Honeyeater Cissomela pectoralis Scientific name definitions

Peter J. Higgins, Les Christidis, and Hugh Ford
Version: 1.0 — Published March 4, 2020
Text last updated January 1, 2008

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Originally Appeared in

HBW Alive

Field Identification

11–13·5 cm; male 7·8–11·4 g, female 7·2–13 g. Breeding plumage is mostly black above and white below, with neat black cap (reaching to level with bottom of eye) and narrow black stripe down centre of hindneck on otherwise white head and neck; pale grey rump and white uppertail-coverts, and black band across upper breast; in fresh plumage, tertials have fine white fringes at tips and tail fine white edges and tip (soon lost with wear); undertail grey-black with fine white edges and tips on outer feathers, underwing white with grey-black trailing edge and tip; iris dark brown; bill and gape black; legs slate-grey to black. Non-breeding plumage similar, but mantle, back and scapulars varyingly brown (ranging from light brown with bold black streaking to black with scattered small patches of light brown); gape yellow. Sexes alike in plumage, male larger than female. Juvenile is like adult but duller, cap pale brown, upperbody largely light rufous-brown, rump grey with faint rufous-brown wash, lores grey-black and ear-coverts washed pale yellow (small blackish spot on lower rear coverts), upperwing and uppertail black-brown, wing-coverts and tertials with broad light rufous-brown fringes, narrower edges on remiges (contrasting panel on folded wing), light brown edges on rectrices (soon lost), underbody faintly tinged cream, narrow pale brown breastband, buff-white underwing with dusky patch on primary coverts and dark grey trailing edge and tip, gape-flanges yellow and initially swollen, and iris paler (sometimes grey-brown).

Systematics History

Together with Sugomel nigrum often placed in Certhionyx because of similarities in external appearance to Certhionyx variegatus; however, various DNA studies (1, 2, 3) indicate that the three species are unrelated. Monotypic.

Subspecies

Monotypic.

Distribution

N Western Australia (S to about Broome, including a few inshore islands, e.g. Sir Graham Moore, Boongaree and Sunday I) E through Top End of Northern Territory (S to Barkly Tableland) to N Queensland (S to Atherton Tableland–Burdekin R–Hughenden).

Habitat

Mainly open or savanna eucalypt woodlands or forests, dominated by such species as variable-barked bloodwood (Eucalyptus dichromophloia), Darwin box (Eucalyptus tectifica), Darwin stringybark (Eucalyptus tetrodonta) and Darwin woollybutt (Eucalyptus miniata), with ground cover of dense, tall grasses dominated by Sorghum, Heteropogon, Alloteropsis and Themeda, or of spinifex (Triodia), and with sparse or no shrub layer. Also often in open or closed riparian paperbark (Melaleuca) forest, especially of weeping paperbark (Melaleuca leucadendra), sometimes mixed with Lophostemon and eucalypts, and with thickets of Pandanus. Sometimes in patches of monsoon rainforest or in mangroves; occasionally in thickets of mixed lancewood-bullwaddy (Acacia shirleyi-Macropteranthes keckwickii) woodland, and in tropical heathland, mixed broadleaf woodland and wet sclerophyll forest; also in urban gardens.

Movement

Not well known. Widely described as nomadic or dispersive. Abundance or occurrence appears seasonal at some sites, e.g. visits Atherton Shire (NE Queensland) in Aug–Dec; and at other sites present throughout year. Numbers and apparent movements often related to flowering of foodplants, birds arriving when trees in flower and leaving when flowering finished. Influxes sometimes occur where large patches of trees are in flower. Vagrant in Torres Strait (Goode I) and, far to S, in New South Wales (Greenwell Point).

Diet and Foraging

Mainly nectar; also arthropods (mainly insects, also spiders), and seeds. In NW Australia, seen to feed on flowers that provided best source of nectar. Forages in crowns of trees, less often in subcanopy and shrub layer; mostly among flowers and in outer and inner foliage, sometimes on branches in upper levels, on trunks, or in air. Probes flowers for nectar; most insects taken by gleaning, sometimes by sally-hovering or flutter-chasing. Active. Usually in twos or in small to large parties of 5–20 or up to hundreds of individuals, rarely singly; sometimes in large numbers in flowering trees, particularly paperbarks, e.g. at least 1000 in flowering paperbarks and 200 or more in flowering eucalypts. Sometimes in mixed-species flocks, e.g. with other meliphagids.

Sounds and Vocal Behavior

Buzzing call notes, given constantly; high-pitched double whistle; single loud whistle, sometimes in repeated series. Song, from perch and in song flight, a short, clear tinkling or twittering; partners also sing poorly co-ordinated antiphonal duets, consisting of series of 2–5 calls by one bird and repeated by mate. Also soft song during courtship display.

Breeding

Season Nov–Jul/Aug, with eggs or laying recorded Nov, Feb–Mar, May and Jul. Nest small and cup-shaped, made of grass, strips of bark, twigs and plant fibre, bound with spider web, usually lined with fine grass, external diameter 3·8–5·6 cm, depth 2·5–4·8 cm, internal diameter 3·8–5 cm, depth 3–4·4 cm; suspended by rim from thin fork of branch 0·45–5·2 m (mean 2·1 m) above ground, usually in outer foliage of shrub or small tree. Clutch usually 2 eggs; incubation by female, both parents feed nestlings and fledglings; no information on duration of incubation and nestling periods.

Conservation Status

Conservation status on Birdlife LC Least Concern
Not globally threatened. Common to locally common. In Northern Territory, recorded densities of 0·2–1·6 birds/ha in Kakadu National Park; and in Yinberrie Hills, NW of Katherine, mean of 3·35 birds/ha, with maximum density of 17·9 birds/ha at start of wet season.
Distribution of the Banded Honeyeater - Range Map
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  • Year-round
  • Migration
  • Breeding
  • Non-Breeding
Distribution of the Banded Honeyeater

eBird and Macaulay Library

Recommended Citation

Higgins, P. J., L. Christidis, and H. Ford (2020). Banded Honeyeater (Cissomela pectoralis), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.banhon1.01
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