Habits
Usually singly, except when breeding, when seen in pairs.
Food
Mainly insects occasionally seeds and leaves. Also said to take fruit.
Voice
Strong, whistles, high, sharp, deep and mellow. Southern race, a whip-crack 'wheeeow, whit, whit, whit' and 'cheee-o-whit, wheee'. Northern race, a high, thin, then abruptly low, 'whiee-whuooo' and a low-high, 'cheeeowhit, wheee'.
Olive Whistler (Pachycephala olivacea) [XC201326]
by Tom Tarrant from Barrington Tops, New South Wales, Australia (song)
Olive Whistler (Pachycephala olivacea) [XC295200]
by Marc Anderson from New England National Park, New South Wales, Australia (song)
Nest
Cup-shaped, loosely composed of fine twigs and dry leaves lined with finer materials, usually in the upright fork of a sapling from 1 - 2 meters above the ground.
Eggs (Guide)
2 or 3; pale buff spotted with brown and grey; oval; about 28 x 19 mm. Incubation: by both sexes.
Young
Altricial, nidicolous. Fed by both parents.
Subspecies
The following 5 subspecies are recognised:
olivacea Vigors & Horsfield, 1827 - South-eastern Nsouth-western and south-eastern and central Vic., on wetter eastern and southern slopes of the Great Divide from the Hunter River, NSW, south and south west to about Daylesford, central Vic., extending inland to Brindabella Ranges - Victorian Alps.
macphersoniana White, HL, 1920 - South-eastern Qld and north-eastern long the Great Divide, from Border Ranges of Nsouth-western - Qld, south to the Hunter River.
bathychroa Schodde & Mason, IJ, 1999 - Strzelecki and Otway Ranges and Wilsons Promontory, southern Vic.
apatetes Schodde & Mason, IJ, 1999 - Tasmania, Furneaux Group and King Island.
hesperus Schodde & Mason, IJ, 1999 - South-western Vic. and south-eastern SA, from Portland Bay, western Vic., north-west to southern Coorong.
The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Pizzey, G., and Knight, E., 1997, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 19691 5
Field Guide to Australian Birds Morecombe, M., 2000, Steve Parish Publishing Pty Ltd. ISBN 1 876282 10 X
Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Simpson, K., and Day, N., 1999, 6th Edition, Viking ISBN 0 670 87918 5
Reader's Digest Complete Book of Australian Birds 1988, 2nd Edition, Reader's Digest ISBN 0 949819 99 9
What Bird is That? 1984, Revised Edition, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 14846 5
Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds 1990 - , Oxford University Press, Melbourne ISBN 0 19 553244 9
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BirdLife International Species Factsheet