The Varied Honeyeater lives in scrub, wetlands, and gardens in New Guinea and northeastern Australia. It eats nectar, insects, and fruit, and has striking black and yellow lines beside the eye.
The upperparts are gray-brown, with a black stripe running from the bill past the eye toward the neck. A yellow stripe below it fades into a white throat, and the underparts are bright yellow except in the north-coast New Guinea subspecies sonoroides, where they are gray. A small white ear tuft is present.
It uses open scrub, low woodland, swamps, creeks, and drainage channels, as well as parks, gardens, and farmyards. It eats nectar, insects, and fruit. The female incubates, while both adults feed the young.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.