I need to positively identify these visitors to our garden. Are they black honeyeaters? They have been feeding from our sage flowers, and using the birdbath.  P.B, Wendouree.

Yes, your photos show female and male black honeyeaters, which are uncommon visitors to Wendouree.  Their usual food plants are flowering eucalypts, so it is interesting to learn that they are feeding on ornamental sages.

There were black honeyeaters in bushland near Clunes and Talbot a couple of months ago.

Yours is the first Wendouree report this season.  These small honeyeaters are found mostly in inland Australia, and they do not extend this far south every year. Their visit has probably been prompted by the inland drought.  Only small numbers visit here when they come, so you are privileged to have them visit your garden. 

Send questions to Roger Thomas at The Courier, PO Box 21, Ballarat, 3353, or to rthomas@vic.australis.com.au