Habitat
Mainly mangroves and rainforests, but also paperbark forests, woodlands and dry savanna. Also, subtropical and tropical dry forest and plantations. From sea-level - 1,460 m.
Lemon-bellied Flyrobin (Microeca flavigaster) [XC172285]
by Rolf A. de By from Varirata National Park, Central Province, Australia (song)
Lemon-bellied Flyrobin (Microeca flavigaster) [XC664158]
by James Lambert from Charles Darwin University, Darwin Municipality, Northern Territory, Australia (song)
Nest
Very small, composed of fibrous bark and grass, bound with cobweb, built into the fork of a dead horizontal limb.
Eggs (Guide)
1; off-white tinged blue-grey, spotted and blotched all over with chestnut to olive-brown and underlying lavender, often forming an irregular zone at the larger end; long-oval; about 19 x 14 mm. Incubation: probably by both sexes.
Young
Altricial, nidicolous. Fed by both parents.
Subspecies
Possibly closest to Tanimbar Flyrobin (Microeca hemixantha), which is regarded by many as a brighter island representative of present species. Subspecies tormenti was formerly treated as a separate species, but allegedly intergrades with nominate on eastern boundary of range.
Proposed subspecies terraereginae, described from Cairns, in northern Queensland (Australia), is based on what is considered an indeterminate specimen that appears intermediate between populations to northern and to south of it.
Microeca tormenti, previously treated as a species in Collar and Andrew (1988), is now considered a subspecies of Lemon-bellied Flycatcher (Microeca flavigaster) following Sibley and Monroe (1990, 1993).
The following 7 subspecies are recognised:
flavigaster Gould, 1843 - Northern NT, including Tiwi Island and Groote Eylandt, south-west to the lower Voctoria River, NT and coastal south-western Gulf of Carpentaria Drainages, NT.
flavissima Schodde & Mason, IJ, 1999 - Islands of Torres Strait, Cape York Peninsula, Qld, south-west to the lower Mitchell River Drainage and south-east to Cooktown, and south-eastern Papua New Guinea.
laetissima Rothschild, 1916 - North-eastern Qld, from Halifax Bay - Hichinbrook Island, south to northern Broad Sound.
tormenti Mathews, 1916 - Coastal north-western WA, from Roebuck Bay north-east to Napier Broome Bay, also an isolated population at the head of Cambridge Gulf, WA. Considered by some authors to be a distinct species, Kimberley Flyrobin (Microeca tormenti).
tarara Rand, 1940 - Trans - Fly Region of south-central coast of New Guinea, with scattered inland populations.
laeta Salvadori, 1878 - Northern New Guinea, scattered from Geelvink Bay in the west to Astrolabe Bay in the east.
terraereginae Mathews, 1912 - South-eastern New Guinea.
Similar Species
Yellow-legged Flycatcher (Kempiella griseoceps) which has orange-yellow legs and feet, a cream colored lower mandible and is generally smaller Grey Whistler (Pachycephala simplex) which has a longer and narrower but much stouter bill, a paler yellow underbody and stronger brown was across the breast and Jacky-Winter (Microeca fascinans) which is whiter below and has characteristic tail flits when perching.
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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