Common in the north becoming sparse toward the south-east. Locally nomadic.
Habitat
Mainly sclerophyll forests and woodlands dominated by eucalypt. Also in mangroves, rainforests and ecotone between rainforest and eucalypt forest.
Subspecies robusta formerly treated as a full species, but now considered to fall within variation of present species. Birds ascribed to subspecies timorlaoensis (of Tanimbar Is) may be nomadic vagrants from Australia. Birds from northern Moluccas sometimes separated as subspecies melanolora, but considered not satisfactorily distinguishable from nominate, with which merged. Australian subspecies intergrade.
Proposed subspecies stalkeri (eastern Australia) is invalid, as it refers to intergradient population in northern and central Queensland, and is therefore included in oriomo.
The following 14 subspecies are recognised:
papuensis (Gmelin, 1788) - Northern Moluccas (Morotai and Halmahera south to Obi), western Papuan Is (Waigeo, Salawati, Misool, Batanta), western and northern New Guinea (including Yapen I), Lesser Sundas (Kisar, Luang, Sermata) and Kai Is.
timorlaoensis (Meyer, AB, 1884) - Tanimbar Is.
angustifrons (Salvadori, 1876) - Central to south-eastern New Guinea.
intermedia Rothschild, 1931 - South-central New Guinea.
oriomo Mayr & Rand, 1936 - Southern New Guinea (Trans-Fly region), islands in Torres Strait and north-eastern Australia (Cape York Peninsula).
apsleyi Mathews, 1912 - Coastal northern Australia (Melville I, Cobourg Peninsula and shores of Van Diemen Gulf).
hypoleuca (Gould, 1848) - Coastal northern Australia (Kimberley east to Gulf of Carpentaria). Non-breeding (probably this race) also in Kai Is and Aru Is.
artamoides Schodde & Mason, IJ, 1999 - Eastern Australia (north-eastern Queensland south to north-eastern New South Wales).
robusta (Latham, 1801) - Coastal south-eastern Australia. Non-breeding north to New South Wales and southern Queensland.
sclaterii (Salvadori, 1878) - Bismarck Archipelago.
perpallida Rothschild & Hartert, 1916 - Northern Solomon Is (Bougainville, Choiseul, Santa Isabel, Florida).
elegans (Ramsay, EP, 1881) - Central and southern Solomons (New Georgia Is south to Guadalcanal).
eyerdami Mayr, 1931 - Malaita I (south-eastern Solomons).
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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