Nest
Cup-shaped, composed of bark and grasses interwoven with cobweb, lined with small dry leaves, often neatly decorated on the outside with strips of bark, or, occasionally, scraps of lichen, usually placed in the upright or horizontal fork, sometimes on a horizontal branch of a low tree, from 1 - 15 meters above the ground.
Eggs (Guide)
2, sometimes 3; grey-green to pale blue, with red-brown and purple-brown spotting, sometimes evenly distributed, at other times concentrated in a cap at the larger end; oval; about 22 x 16 mm. Incubation: 15 - 16 days; by female.
Young
Altricial, nidicolous. Fledge in 10 - 14 days.
Subspecies
Closely related to, and sometimes treated as conspecific with, Western Yellow Robin (Eopsaltria griseogularis). Northern subspecies chrysorrhos has in the past been considered a separate species. Geographical variation rather complex, and up to six subspecies have been recognized on basis of differences in rump and abdomen colours and bill length, but this variation somewhat clinal. Described subspecies magnirostris (from north-eastern Queensland) merged with chrysorrhos, and viridior (south-eastern South Australia and Victoria) with nominate; coomooboolaroo (south-central Queensland) and austina (interior of northern and central New South Wales) are considered to be intergrades between nominate and chrysorrhos.
The following 2 subspecies are recognised:
australis (White, 1790) - South-eastern Australia, from the uppermost reaches of the Murray - Darling Basin, west of the Great Divide in south-central Qld, through the eastern half of New South Wales (except north-east, north of Hunter River and on and east of the Great Divide), and eastern and southern Vic. and south-eastern SA.
chrysorrhos Gould, 1869 - North-eastern Australia, from Atherton Tableland, north-eastern Qld, south to Bunya Mts, Qld, and Clarence River Drainage, north-eastern New South Wales, extending inland to the western slopes of the Great Divide.
Similar Species
Pale-yellow Robin (Tregellasia capito) which has a whitish-grey patch above the bill, and yellow legs and Golden Whistler (Pachycephala pectoralis) which has a black head, black band across the breast and a white throat.
References
See References.
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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