Common. Seasonally locally nomadic. Seasonal movements in the south-east.
Habitat
Open, dry sclerophyll forests and woodlands, especially those dominated by eucalypts with dense or sparse understorey of shrubs or open grassy ground-cover.
Voice
The main call is a cheery 'kitty-lin-toff-toff-toff'. Also a guttural 'pitt-quoll, pitty-quoll'. A deep metallic twanging 'tew-tew-tew-tew' or 'clitchit-clee-you', repeated. A short 'jeow' contact call.
Nest
Cup-shaped, neat, composed of fiber bound with cobweb and plant-down, lined with wool or plant-down, suspended from slender branches of a tree or bush, from 1 - 10 m above the ground.
Eggs (Guide)
2 - 3; yellowish to buff-pink with faint spots of red-brown and pale lilac; oval; 20 x 15 mm. Incubation: about 15 days; by female only.
Young
Altricial, nidicolous. Fledge in about 15 - 16 days.
Subspecies
Forms a superspecies with Yellow-tinted Honeyeater (Ptilotula flavescens). Often considered conspecific with Yellow-tinted Honeyeater (Ptilotula flavescens). Subspecies intergrade in fairly narrow region of Dawson-MacKenzie rivers, in central-eastern Queensland. Birds from Dawson R described as subspecies dawsoni, but represent part of this intergrading population.
The following 2 subspecies are recognised:
fusca (Gould, 1837) - Coastal south-eastern Australia and the Great Diving Range from south-eastern SA, north to Dawson - Mackenzie Basin, Qld.
subgermana (Mathews, 1912) - Coastal north-eastern Australia and the Great Dividing Range from the region of Big and Windsor Tablelands, south-east of Cooktown, Qld, south to Dawson - Mackenzie Basin.
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