blue-faced honeyeaters can be noisy when they congregate. When feeding in groups, birds seem to keep in contact with each other by soft chirping calls. In Mackay, a bird would fly up above the treetops calling excitedly to its flock, which would follow and fly around in what was likened to an aerial corroboree, seemingly at play. A single bird was recorded aping and playing with an immature Australian magpie (Gymnorhina tibicen) in Proserpine, Queensland. The blue-faced honeyeater has been reported to be fond of bathing; a flock of 15–20 birds was observed diving into pools one bird at a time, while others were perched in surrounding treetops preening. The parasite Anoncotaenia globata (a worldwide species not otherwise recorded from Australia) was isolated from a blue-faced honeyeater collected in North Queensland in 1916. The habroneme nematode, Cyrnea (Procyrnea) spirali, has also been isolated from this among other honeyeater species. The nasal mite, Ptilonyssus philemoni, has been isolated from the noisy friarbird (Philemon corniculatus) and blue-faced honeyeater. Breeding The blue-faced honeyeater probably breeds throughout its range. The breeding season is from June to January, with one or two broods raised during this time. The nest is an untidy, deep bowl of sticks and bits of bark in the fork of a tree, Staghorn or bird's nest ferns, or grasstree. Pandanus palms are a popular nest site in Mackay. They often renovate and use the old nests of other species, most commonly the grey-crowned babbler (Pomatostomus temporalis), but also the chestnut-crowned babbler (P. ruficeps), other honeyeaters, including noisy (Philemon corniculatus), little (P. citreogularis) and silver-crowned friarbirds (P. argenticeps), the noisy miner (Manorina melanocephala) and the red wattlebird (Anthochaera carunculata), and artamids, such as the Australian magpie and butcherbird species, and even the magpie-lark. In Coen, an old babbler nest in a paperbark (Melaleuca), which had been lined with messmate bark, had been occupied by blue-faced honeyeaters and re-lined with strips of paperbark. Two or, rarely, three eggs are laid, 22 × 32 mm (1 × 1⅓ in) and buff-pink splotched with red-brown or purplish colours. The female alone incubates the eggs over a period of 16 or 17 days. Like those of all passerines, the chicks are altricial; they are born blind and covered only by sparse tufts of brown down on their backs, shoulders and parts of the wings. By four days they open their eyes, and pin feathers emerge from