Three distinct populations, regarded by some as separate species: Kimberley and the Top End, eastern Australia from about Cairns, Qld south to Melbourne, Vic., and west to about Adelaide, SA, and south-western Australia.
Habits
Usually singly, in twos or in groups of three to five.
Food
Invertebrates, mainly insects, but occasionally fruit and seeds.
Voice
Usual call is a descending whistle, similar to, but lower pitched than a Horsfield's Bronze-Cuckoo (Chalcites basalis), interspersed with a subtle chatter. Sometimes the chatter - "chuck-chuck" - is given alone.
Nest
Deep, cup-shaped, compact and neat, composed of fiber and strips of bark woven together, matted with cobweb, lined with grass and thin strands of fine bark, built in the tallest upright branches of a tree, up to 30 m above the ground.
Eggs (Guide)
2 - 3; white, freckled with dark brown, slate and lavender; oval; about 24 x 15 mm. Incubation: more than 15 days; mainly by female.
Young
Altricial, nidicolous. Fledge in about 15 - 21 days. Fed by both parents and helpers.
Subspecies
Sometimes these subspecies have been regarded as full species.
The following 3 subspecies are recognised:
frontatus (Latham, 1801) - Eastern and south-eastern Australia from Atherton Tableland east to the coast south of Broad Sound in north-eastern Qld, south and south-west through New South Wales to Vic. and Mt Lofty Ranges, SA, extending inland to Warrego - Darling - Murray Rivers in Qld - New South Wales and outer-western slopes of the Greate Divide.
leucogaster Gould, 1838 - South-western WA. Considered by some authors to be a distinct species, Western Shrike-tit (Falcunculus leucogaster).
whitei Campbell, AJ, 1910 - North-western and northern-central Australia from eastern Kimberley Divide, WA, east to southern Gulf of Carpentaria Drainage, NT. Considered by some authors to be a distinct species, Northern Shrike-tit (Falcunculus whitei).
Similar Species
In appearance this species is very distinctive, though in bad light (?darkness) it could conceivably be confused with a Golden Whistler (Pachycephala pectoralis). The call is sufficiently similar to the Horsfield's Bronze-Cuckoo (Chalcites basalis) to cause confusion: perhaps this might extend to the Black-eared Cuckoo (Chalcites osculans) if their ranges were to overlap.
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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