White-breasted Whistler (Pachycephala lanioides) [XC278265]
by Pieter de Groot Boersma from Broome Bird Observatory, Western Australia, Australia (song)
White-breasted Whistler (Pachycephala lanioides) [XC521516]
by David Edwards from Karumba, Carpentaria Shire, Queensland, Australia (call)
Nest
Open, rather frail, composed of twigs and rootlets, lined with finer rootlets and anchored with cobweb, usually in a fork of a mangrove, within 2 or 3 meters of the ground.
Eggs (Guide)
1 or 2; smooth, glossy, buff-olive, spotted with umber and olive-brown, usually darker in a zone at the larger end; oval; about 26 x 19 mm. Incubation: probably by female.
Young
Altricial, nidicolous. Fed by both parents.
Subspecies
The following 3 subspecies are recognised:
lanioides Gould, 1840 - Northern western Australia (coast of western Kimberley from south of Admiralty Gulf south to Eighty Mile Beach).
carnarvoni (Mathews, 1913) - Pilbara coast from Eighty Mile Beach south to Carnarvon, in north-western western Australia.
fretorum De Vis, 1889 - Extreme north-eastern western Australia (Cambridge Gulf) and coast of northern Territory (including islands of Bathurst, Melville and Groote Eylandt) east to south-western Cape York Peninsula (north-western Queensland).
Similar Species
Female and immature with female Rufous Whistler (Pachycephala rufiventris) which is smaller and has a less stout bill.
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