Noisy Friarbird

Friarbirds are a distinctive group of large honeyeaters with varying amounts of bare facial and/or head skin. The Noisy Friarbird has the most bare skin of the four Friarbird species found in Australia.

The Australian Bird Guide describes the Noisy Friarbird as bold, belligerent and gregarious - they can be found in small groups to large flocks. I agree with the ABG assessment, however from my experience single birds are also common. 

Single birds can be rather elusive and hard to approach but I recently encountered a single bird at close range and before the bird recovered from my surprise appearance and took off, I managed two photos which, when cropped, show the bird’s bare head and facial skin fairly well.

NOTE: You can left click on any photo to open a slide show of the photos free of text or a right click enables one photo at a time to be opened in a New Tab where an enlarged version can be viewed.

Without feathers (ear-coverts), the ear hole, which all birds have and we rarely see, is obvious in the photos. 

The casque, the protrusion at the base of the upper mandible, also stands out and I wonder what purpose, if any, this provides? A quick search suggests the purpose of casques on birds is unknown though there are a number of possible explanations.

The evolution of bare skin in birds has been driven by thermoregulation and/or feeding hygiene and not sexual selection. The Noisy Friarbird’s bare skin may be a survival advantage but to my eye and aesthetic bias, it is not pretty.