Nest
Cup-shaped, composed of strips of bark, bound with cobweb, decorated on the outside with lichen, usually built on a dead twig about 1 m above the high-water mark.
Eggs (Guide)
2; white, marked with browns and underlying purple-grey, mostly in a ring at the larger end; long-oval; about 24 x 16 mm.
Young
Altricial, nidicolous.
Subspecies
Distinctive subspecies fulviventris possibly a separate species.
The following 3 subspecies are recognised:
ruficollis (Vieillot, 1818) - Islands in Flores Sea, also southern and eastern Lesser Sundas (Sumba east to Timor, Lomblen east to Damar).
mimikae Ogilvie-Grant, 1911 - Coastal mangroves of northern Australia, from north-western Kimberley Divide, WA, east to eastern Cape York Peninsula, north-eastern Qld, and patchily, south-east to Shoalwater Bay, central-eastern Qld, and also on Tiwi Island and Groote Eylandt in NT, and islands of Torres Strait, in north-eastern Qld, Aru Island, and southern New Guinea.
fulviventris Sclater, PL, 1883 - Tanimbar Is.
Similar Species
With female, juvenile and immature Leaden Flycatcher (Myiagra rubecula) which has a much narrower bill, less glossy grey upperparts and darker lores.
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