Common. In the south-east it is a summer migrant from Cape York, in the north-east a summer migrant from New Guinea. In the NT and Kimberley it is resident all year round but some migrate to Indonesia.
Habitat
Mainly tropical and subtropical rainforests, but also wet and dry sclerophyll forests and woodlands. Occasionally along tree-lined creeks in open country. Common in gardens and streets of some urban areas.
Northern and eastern Australia, west to the Kimberley and south to about Nowra, NSW. Vagrant to Tasmania and South Australia. Also widespread from India and China to the Solomon Islands.
Nest
Open, shallow cup, composed of vine-tendrils and slender twigs, suspended from the rim in an outer fork of a branch of a tall tree, often on the edge of a clearing, usually between 10 - 12 m above the ground.
Eggs (Guide)
3 - 5; pale pink to purple-grey, spotted and streaked with red and purple; long-oval; about 29 x 21 mm. Incubation: about 19 days; by both sexes.
Young
Altricial, nidicolous. Fledge in about 22 days.
Some subspecies (e.g. buruensis and amboinensis), may represent separate species. Proposed island subspecies ultramontanus (described from Aru Is) and, off south-eastern New Guinea, propinquus (D'Entrecastaux Archipelago) and dejectus (Louisiade Archipelago) overlap so much in measurements and pattern with mainland carbonarius that all are synonymized with carbonarius . Likewise manumeten (described from Manusela, on Seram) is subsumed in amboinensis.
The following 12 subspecies are recognised:
morotensis Vaurie, 1946 - Morotai, off northern Halmahera (northern Moluccas).
atrocaeruleus Gray, GR, 1861 - Halmahera, Bacan, and West Papuan Is (Kofiau I).
buruensis Hartert, 1919 - Buru I, in south-western Moluccas.
carbonarius Bonaparte, 1850 - Lowland New Guinea and satellite islands (including Boigu, Dauan and Saibai, in northern Torres Strait), and Aru Is.
laemostictus Sclater, PL, 1877 - Southern Bismarck Archipelago (Umboi and New Britain).
meeki Rothschild & Hartert, 1903 - Southern Solomon Is (Guadalcanal).
longirostris Ramsay, EP, 1882 - Southern Solomon Is (San Cristobal).
baileyi Mathews, 1912 - North-western Australia (northern Kimberley Division, Bathurst I, Melville I, and northern Arnhem Land).
atrabectus Schodde & Mason, IJ, 1999 - North-eastern Australia (Cape York Peninsula and north-eastern coast of Queensland south to Burdekin R); may migrate to Torres Strait and south-central New Guinea.
acteatus Gould, 1843 - Coastal eastern Australia from Burdekin R area southern in Queensland (inland to Great Divide) to north-eastern New South Wales (rarely breeding south of 31° south); migrates to north-eastern Australia, islands in Torres Strait and south-central New Guinea.
bracteatus (Gould, 1842) - Eastern Australia (Burdekin R., Queensland to south coast of NSW).
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