Voice
Noisy, often loud, raucous, sharp yet husky 'kieeerk, kieeerk'. Sharp contact call 'whik, whik, whik, whik' and softer 'quorriek, quorriek', repeated. Also a clear, whistled 'quorrieek', beginning low, finishing with a loud, high shriek.
Nest
A flattish structure, composed of strips of bark, lined with fine bark and dried grasses, usually placed high up on an outer branch of a tree. Occasionally, in the interior regions, an old babbler's nest will be used and in coastal areas a Magpie-lark or Friarbirds nest.
Eggs (Guide)
2, usually 3; white to pale buff-pink with large purple-red and chestnut spots and blotches with underlying slate-grey marks; oval; about 32 x 22 mm.
Young
Fledging poorly known. Possibly up to 23 - 24 days.
Subspecies
Subspecies griseigularis formerly referred to by name harterti, but holotype of latter (from Cooktown, in northern Queensland) is intergrade between southern New Guinea/northern Australian population and nominate subspecies of eastern Australia.
Proposed subspecies apsleyi (Melville I, in Northern Territory) synonymous with albipennis.
The following 5 subspecies are recognised:
cyanotis (Latham, 1801) - From the base of Cape York Peninsula south through Queensland, east of Thomson - Barcoo Drainage Basin to north-eastern coast of New South Wales, and south-west through Murray - Darling Basin to north-central western Victoria and south-eastern South Australia.
albipennis Gould, 1841 - Coastal and sub-coastal north-western Australia from the Limberley Divide, WA to southern Gulf of Carpentaria. Considered by some authors to be a distinct species, White-quilled Honeyeater (Entomyzon albipennis).
griseigularis van Oort, 1909 - Fly - Digoel region, southern New Guinea and Cape York Peninsula.
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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