Those of the former subgenus forage for insects in foliage or canopy, congregate in larger flocks, and are found in more open dry sclerophyll forests.

Members of the subgenus Eidopsarus forage by probing for insects in bark of tree trunks and branches, generally in eucalypt forest and rainforest, and travel in small family groups.

Biologist Allen Keast studied the genus extensively across Australia, and noted that a member of each group were found together in many parts of the country, with the trunk-foraging species averaging 10% larger - thus the smaller lunatus occurs with the larger gularis, and this is most exaggerated in Tasmania, where the difference between affinis and validirostris is even more marked.

Furthermore, the bill of the shorter-billed taxon in areas where the trunk feeder was absent grew longer, as chloropsis did in Western Australia.

[4] Molecular markers show genus split from the ancestors of the blue-faced honeyeater somewhere between 12.8 and 6.4 million years ago in the Miocene epoch.