Habitat
Wet sclerophyl forests dominated by eucalypt with a dense understorey, including sword-sedge, wiregrass, bracken and low shrubs, and usually with a taller shrub layer or low tree layer.
Habits
Singly, in twos and occasionally in small family groups.
Food
Insects. Occasionally seeds and fruits.
Voice
Piercing and sweet. Male: a silvery, far-carrying 'ee-see-a-week'. Answered by female with, 'whit-a, whit-ee' or 'qui-wit-tui-wit-tee'. Also softer notes like 'tui-wit'.
Pilotbird (Pycnoptilus floccosus) [XC340171]
by Marc Anderson from Royal National Park, New South Wales, Australia (song)
Pilotbird (Pycnoptilus floccosus) [XC785657]
by Mike FitzGerald from Wollemi National Park (near Wollemi), Lithgow City Council, New South Wales, Australia (song)
Nest
Dome-shaped, with a side entrance, composed of strips of bark and fiber, adorned with leaves, rootlets and grass, lined with bark-fiber and feathers, built on or near the ground.
Eggs (Guide)
1 or 2; grey-green to smoky brown with a wash of color around the larger end; oval; about 28 x 20 mm. Incubation: 20 - 22 days; by female.
Young
Altricial, nidicolous. Fledge in 14 - 18 days.
Subspecies
Taxonomic placement unresolved. Some features suggest a link with bristlebirds (Dasyornithidae), perhaps a result of convergence, but others fit present family, of which currently treated as an aberrant member.
The following 2 subspecies are recognised:
floccosus Gould, 1851 - Snowy Mountains, New South Wales from Brindabella Ranges, ACT south to the Murray River, New South Wales - Vic., above about 600 m.
sandlandi Mathews, 1912 - South-eastern New South Wales from the Blue Mountains, south and south-west to Strathbogie and the Dandenong Ranges, eastern Vic, below about 600 m.
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