Nest
A loose, substantial cup composed of dry grass and twigs, lined with fine grass, hair, wool and other soft materials, placed in a bush or tree, generally between 2 and 7 m above the ground.
Eggs (Guide)
Usually 3 or 4; pink to red-buff with specks or blotches of red or purple-brown, mostly at the larger end; oval; about 26 x 18 mm. Incubation: about 15 - 16 days; usually by breeding female.
Young
Fledge in about 15 - 16 days.
Subspecies
Forms a superspecies with Noisy Miner (Manorina melanocephala) and Black-eared Miner (Manorina melanotis). Often treated as conspecific with Black-eared Miner (Manorina melanotis), and hybridizes extensively with it. Analyses of mitochondrial DNA, however, suggest that the two should be treated as separate species. Rarely, hybridizes with Noisy Miner (Manorina melanocephala). Dark subspecies obscura has sometimes been regarded as a separate species. Subspecies intergrade where they meet.
Additional proposed subspecies are clelandi (from Broome Hill, in southern Western Australia), included in obscura; casuarina (Mt Casuarina, in northern Western Australia) and alligator (Alligator R, in Northern Territory), both subsumed in lutea; and pallida (Tietkens Creek, in Musgrave Ranges of central Australia), synonymized with wayensis.
The following 5 subspecies are recognised:
flavigula (Gould, 1840) - From Gulf of Carpentaria, the foot of Cape York Peninsula and central coastal Qld, south-west through the Murray - Darling Basin to the Flinders Ranges and the Adelaide Plains, and Grey Range System, bordering Lake Eyre Basin.
lutea (Gould, 1840) - Kimberley Divide, WA to west Arnhemland, NT south the the eucalypt - acacia transition zone.
obscura (Gould, 1841) - South-western WA from northern Swan Coastal Plain, south-east to Esperance area, through inner Wheatbelt, but mainly absent from wet south-western corner west and south of Lancelin - Stirling ranges.
wayensis (Mathews, 1912) - Inland Australia, north and west of Flinders - Grey Ranges and eastern Gulf of Carpentaria Drainage, south of Arnhemland and the Kimberley Divide and north-west of inner south-western WA Wheatbelt.
melvillensis (Mathews, 1912) - Melville I (Northern Territory).
Similar Species
Noisy Miner (Manorina melanocephala) which has a black crown and Black-eared Miner (Manorina melanotis) which has more black around the face and has a grey-brown rump.
Compare Images
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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