The black honeyeater is a bird of the dry inland of Australia, being generally widespread though scattered in western Queensland and New South Wales to the South Australian border, and occasionally recorded in the Victorian Mallee and Wimmera regions. In South Australia, it occurs in the south-east and it is widespread in the central and northern regions of Western Australia, with some rare sightings in the south near Kalgoorlie. In the Northern Territory, it is widespread around Alice Springs, with some vagrants to the Top End.
