Nest
Large, open, cup-shaped, composed of sticks and twigs, in an upright fork of a tree, usually 7 or 8 meters above the ground.
Eggs (Guide)
2 or 3, sometimes 4; variably dull, green-grey sparingly spotted and lightly blotched with red-brown, lavender and brown-black, mostly towards the lareger end; oval; about 35 x 25 mm. Incubation: by both sexes.
Young
Probably altricial, nidicolous. Fed by both parents.
Subspecies
Subspecies jardini intergrades with rufescens in region of Endeavour R (in north-eastern Queensland).
The following 5 subspecies are recognised:
quoyi (Lesson, 1827) - West Papuan Islands (Waigeo, Salawati and Misool), Yapen (in Geelvink Bay) and mainland New Guinea (except Trans-Fly).
alecto (Schodde & Mason, IJ, 1999) - South-central New Guinea (Trans-Fly region from Princess Marianne Strait east to Daru I), Aru Is, and islands in northern Torres Strait (Boigu and Saibai).
spaldingi (Masters, 1878) - Northern western Australia (Cambridge Gulf) east along coast, including Tiwi Islands (Bathurst I and Melville I), to coastal Arnhem Land (to Blue Mud Bay, in Gulf of Carpentaria).
jardini (Mathews, 1912) - Coastal Cape York Peninsula south to Mitchell R in the west and to Cooktown in the east.
rufescens (De Vis, 1883) - North-eastern coastal Queensland from Cooktown area soth to northern Broad Sound (south of Mackay), with gap at Burdekin R.
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