Voice
Clear, sharp, penetrating, short whistles, often slow and deliberate, with a rise then fall, 'wheet, whit, wiet, wheat, whieew'. Lacks final whip-crack.
Nest
Cup-shaped, loosely composed of fiber and dead leaves, interwoven with rootlets and tendrils, sparsely lined with dead grass and tendrils, usually in the upright fork of a small sapling.
Eggs (Guide)
2; glossy, white, with umber and purple-grey spots, mostly at the larger end; oval; about 21 x 16 mm.
Young
Altricial, nidicolous. Probably fed by both parents.
Subspecies
Brown Whistler (Pachycephala griseiceps) and Grey Whistler (Pachycephala simplex) (Sibley and Monroe 1990, 1993) have been lumped into Pachycephala simplex following Christidis and Boles (1994).
The following 12 subspecies are recognised:
simplex Gould, 1843 - Northern Northern Territory (Port Keats east to Port Bradshaw, including Melville I and Groote Eylandt), in northern Australia.
waigeuensis Stresemann and Paludan, 1932 - Northern West Papuan Is (Gebe, Waigeo).
gagiensis Mayr, 1940 - Gagi I (south-west of Waigeo).
griseiceps Gray, GR, 1858 - West Papuan Is (Salawati, Batanta, Misool), north-western New Guinea (Vogelkop east to head of Geelvink Bay) and Aru Is. Considered by some authors to be a distinct species, Brown Whistler (Pachycephala griseiceps).
miosnomensis Salvadori, 1879 - Meos Num (in Geelvink Bay).
jobiensis Meyer, AB, 1874 - Northern New Guinea from Yapen Is and eastern coast of Geelvink Bay east to Astrolabe Bay.
rufipennis Gray, GR, 1858 - Kai Is.
perneglecta E. J. O. Hartert, 1930 - Southern New Guinea from foot of Weyland Mts (south from R Mimika) east, including Daru I, to Galley Reach.
dubia E. P. Ramsay, 1879 - South-eastern New Guinea eastern from Huon Peninsula and, in south, from Sogeri District and R Laloki, and D'Entrecasteaux Archipelago (Goodenough I, Fergusson I, Normanby I).
sudestensis (De Vis, 1892) - Louisiade Archipelago (Tagula I), east of D’Entrecasteaux. (New Guinea).
peninsulae Hartert, 1899 - North-eastern Queensland (Cape York Peninsula south to Cairns district), in north-eastern Australia.
brunnescens Wolters, 1980 - South-eastern New Guinea and D'Entrecasteaux Archipelago.
Similar Species
Lemon-bellied Flycatcher (Microeca flavigaster) which has a shorter and thicker and less stout bill, a more yellow underbody and less brown was across the breast, Yellow-legged Flycatcher (Kempiella griseoceps) which is smaller, has less yellow underbody and greyer upperbody, and adult female, juvenile and immature Mangrove Golden Whistler (Pachycephala melanura) and Golden Whistler (Pachycephala pectoralis) in north-eastern Qld, which are larger.
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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BirdLife International Species Factsheet