Food
Insects, nectar, native fruits, berries and cultivated fruits.
Voice
A deep, rollicking, goose-like honking, 'owk-orrok, owk-orrok, arrok-kok-carrowk, kor-r-r-r-owk', some parts sounding likr 'tabacco' or 'four-o'-clock'. Also a sharp, metallic, 'owk, owk'.
Nest
Cup-shaped, composed of bark and grasses woven with cobweb and neatly lined with dry grass, usually suspended from a drooping branch, often overhanging water, up to 15 m or more above the ground.
Eggs (Guide)
2 or 3, rarely 5; light to dark pink-buff, vaguely spotted and marbled with pale slate, chestnut or violet-grey, particularly at the larger end; oval to tapered-oval; about 33 x 22 mm. Incubation: about 15 - 19 days; by female.
Proposed subspecies ellioti (from Watson River, in northern Queensland) is based on an intergrade between nominate and monachus; clamans, described from Wallaroo Gorge (Carnarvon Range, in south-eastern Queensland), is synonymized with monachus.
The following 3 subspecies are recognised:
corniculatus (Latham, 1790) - Southern New Guinea (Wassi Kussa R east to Oriomo R) and north-eastern Australia (north-eastern Queensland from about Weipa-Iron Range south, extending inland to middle reaches of Mitchell R and Staaten R and upper Norman R, to Mackay).
monachus (Latham, 1801) - Eastern and south-eastern Australia from central-eastern Queensland (Mackay region) south, extending inland to c. 144-145° east, to central-southern Victoria (Gippsland).
ellioti Mathews, 1912 - Trans-Fly lowlands of south-eastern New Guinea.
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