Voice
An abrupt, musical 'prrip, prrip' at intervals of several seconds. If agitated notes are faster and a very fast and higher pitched 'prrrrrrt' when alarmed. Song includes a high, clear and deep 'cheewip-chip-quorricheep-quorit-chiwip'. The name 'Singing Honeyeater' is misleading, since the bird's calls, though resonant, are much less melodious than those of various other honeyeaters.
Singing Honeyeater (Gavicalis virescens) [XC595121]
by Marc Anderson from White Cliffs, Central Darling Shire Council, New South Wales, Australia (call)
Singing Honeyeater (Gavicalis virescens) [XC881671]
by Matthias Feuersenger from Rottnest Island, City of Cockburn, Western Australia, Australia (song, waves on the beach, wind)
Nest
Cup-shaped, composed of strips of bark and grasses and lined with wood or other soft materials, suspended from a fork of a bush.
Eggs (Guide)
2 - 3; pale pink or buff-white, usually with darker cap or band at the larger end, occasionally with a few small brown spots; oval; about 22 x 16 mm. Incubation: 12 - 15 days; by female.
Subpecies intergrade where they abut: cooperi intergrades with forresti in northern Northern Territory; forresti intergrades with sonorus in narrow band from northern Queensland (eastern drainage of Gulf of Carpentaria) south through C Cooper Creek Drainage to northern Flinders Ranges and Gawler Ranges (South Australia), and with nominate from western Western Australia (between North West Cape and Shark Bay) east to western Eyre Peninsula (South Australia); in southern South Australia, nominate, forresti and sonorus overlap in three-way melange south-western of Gawler Ranges. Proposed subspecies insularis (from Rottnest I, off Perth, in Western Australia) considered indistinguishable from nominate, and westwoodia (Westwood, in southern Queensland) synonymized with sonorus.
The following 4 subspecies are recognised:
virescens (Vieillot, 1817) - Coastal and sub-coastal south-western WA from Shark Bay - Carnarvon on the west coast and extending east along the south coast to western Eyre Peninsula, SA.
sonorus (Gould, 1841) - Centred on the Murray - Darling Basin, extending south-west to castal western Victoria, south-eastern SA as far west as eastern Eyre Peninsula, west to Grey and Central Flinders Ranges and south-eastern drainage of the Gulf of Carpentaria, north to subcoastal central Qld and east to far western outliers of the Great Divide.
cooperi (Mathews, 1912) - Arnhem Land to south-western drainage of the Gulf of Carpentaria in NT and on Tiwi Island.
forresti (Ingram, W, 1906) - Central and the zone west to the Kimberley Divide, Pilbara and the Wheatbelt of WA, south to the Nullarbor Plain of WA and SA and northern Eyre Peninsula and northern Flinders Ranges, SA, east to Grey Ranges and south-central drainage of the Gulf of Carpentaria, Qld and north to Barkly Tableland and Upper Victoria Ranges in NT.
Similar Species
In poor views could be mistaken with Purple-gaped Honeyeater (Lichenostomus cratitius) which has strong olive tinge to its underparts, with a plain grey forehead, crown and nape, mostly unstreaked underparts and no white on the face or Grey-headed Honeyeater (Ptilotula keartlandi) which has pale yellow underparts, lightly streaked on the breast only, no white on the face and has a yellow plume at the rear-edge of the mask, bordered at the front by black. With Yellow-faced Honeyeater (Caligavis chrysops) which is smaller, browner overall and has a slight yellowish mark behind the eye, Varied Honeyeater (Gavicalis versicolor) which has a yellow streaked upper breast and a white patch on the side of the neck and Mangrove Honeyeater (Gavicalis fasciogularis) which has a brown barred pattern on a yellow throat and a white patch on the side of the neck.
References
See References.
The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Pizzey, G., and Knight, E., 1997, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 19691 5
Field Guide to Australian Birds Morecombe, M., 2000, Steve Parish Publishing Pty Ltd. ISBN 1 876282 10 X
Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Simpson, K., and Day, N., 1999, 6th Edition, Viking ISBN 0 670 87918 5
Reader's Digest Complete Book of Australian Birds 1988, 2nd Edition, Reader's Digest ISBN 0 949819 99 9
What Bird is That? 1984, Revised Edition, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 14846 5
Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds 1990 - , Oxford University Press, Melbourne ISBN 0 19 553244 9
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