Striped Honeyeater
Back
Ellura
Striped Honeyeater
Bare Skin Eye patch, back
 
                      
Striped Honeyeater (Plectorhyncha lanceolata)Class: Animals (Animalia) - Chordates (Chordata) - Birds (Aves)
Order: Perching Birds (Passeriformes)
Family: Honeyeater (Meliphagidae)     iNaturalist Observation
Species: Striped Honeyeater (Plectorhyncha lanceolata)
This Photo:     Top of Head

Thank you Jenny Donald for confirming the id of this species for us

General Species Information:
Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA) and elsewhere
We were looking through some new photo's to try and improve the examples posted when we noticed a bare skin patch at the back of the eye. Similar to the White-fronted honeyeater, but it's grey with the Striped rather than red. Then we noticed on the other eye that the bare patch was on the front of the eye.
THIS IS STRANGE.
So we looked more closely at the old photo's and found exactly the same thing.
Hmmm .... so is this an asymetrical characteristic of the bird, or did we just happen to photograph the same specimen (with an abnormality) some 18 months apart?
We couldn't find any mention of it anywhere.
NO; we reckon we've worked it out. We think the bare skin becomes more, or less, obvious as the eye moves (ie compreses or stretches to follow they eye direction)
Wiki says the bare patch is brown. Looks grey to us.

Copyright © 2014-2024 Brett & Marie Smith. All Rights Reserved. Photographed 30-Aug-2014
This species is protected and classed as RA (Rare) under the National Parks & Wildlife, SA, Protection Act