Nest
Cup-shaped, composed of rootlets, bark and grass, bound with cobweb, lined with soft material, usually in the upright fork of a tree, from 1 - 7 meters above the ground.
Eggs (Guide)
2; olive- to blue-green, clouded red-brown to olive at the larger end; oval; about 21 x 16 mm. Incubation: about 14 days; by female.
Young
Altricial, nidicolous. Fledge in about 12 - 14 days. Fed by both parents and helpers.
Subspecies
The following 4 subspecies are recognised:
cucullata (Latham, 1801) - South-eastern Australia (excluding wetter forests), from Expedition - Chesterton Ranges, south-eastern Qld, south along the Great Divide and extending east to the coast south of Clarence River Drainage, New South Wales and inland to eastern Darling River Drainage, Murray - Mallee and Mt Lofty - southern Flinders Ranges and Yorke Peninsula, SA.
westralensis (Mathews, 1912) - Central-western WA to south-western NT and north-western SA from Goldfields Regions, Pilbara, Shark Bay and WA Wheatbelt, east to Gibson and southern Tanami Deserts, NT, western fringes of Simpson Desert and Lake Eyre Basin, SA and Eyre Peninsula and Nullarbor Plain, SA.
picata Gould, 1865 - North-western and central-eastern Australia, from southern and eastern Kimberely Divide, WA, and central Arnhem Land, NT, south and east through central and eastern NT to the eastern fringe of Simpson - Strzelecki Deserts, central Qld, and south-western Qld, and north-eastern New South Wales.
melvillensis (Zietz, FR, 1914) - Tiwi Island, NT.
Similar Species
Male with male White-winged Triller (Lalage tricolor) which has throat and underparts wholly white and male with male Pied Honeyeater (Certhionyx variegatus) which has a much longer, decurved, blue-grey bill, a blue-grey eye wattle, the black on the throat extending to only the upper breast and a pale 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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