Nest
Ope, rather shallow, composed of thin twigs, lined with dried but pliable leaves, usually in the fork of a tree, or a clump of mistletoe, from 3 - 25 m above the ground.
Eggs (Guide)
1 - 3, usually 2; cream to buff-brown, heavily spotted, blotched and sometimes lined with umber, purple-grey and ink-grey; oval; about 44 x 29 mm. Incubation: 21 - 22 days; by female.
Young
Semi-altricial, nidicolous. Fledge in about 19 - 22 days.
Subspecies
Two documented records of hybridization with Regent Bowerbird (Sericulus chrysocephalus).
The following 2 subspecies are recognised:
violaceus (Vieillot, 1816) - Coastal south-eastern and central-eastern Australia from Dawes Ranges, south-east Qld, south to the Otway Ranges, Vic, inland to the eastern scarps and summit ridges of the Greate Divide.
minor Campbell, AJ, 1912 - Humid montane north-eastern Qld, from Mt Finnegan - Big Tableland, south to the Paluma Range.
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