Nest
Open, composed of strips of bark bound with cobweb and decorated on the outside with bark and lichen, usually in trees and vines overhanging water.
Eggs (Guide)
2 or 3; bluish white to pale blue green, dotted with black and grey-browns, with underlying lavender or grey, mainly in a band in the center or at the larger end; oval; about 20 x 15 mm. Incubation: probably 13 days; by both sexes.
Young
Altricial, nidicolous. Probably fed by both parents.
Subspecies
Subspecies melvillensis known to intergrade with wardelli on Cape York Peninsula. Birds from southern New Guinea described as subspecies novaeguineensis, now considered synonymous with chalybeocephalus.
The following 8 subspecies are recognised:
alecto (Temminck, 1827) - Morotai, Halmahera, Ternate, Tidore, Mare, Muor, Moti, Bacan, Damar, Kasinuta and Obi.
chalybeocephala (Lesson and Garnot, 1828) - Western Papuan Is, west, south-western and northern New Guinea, Karkar I, Bagabag, and Bismarck Archipelago.
manumudari (Rothschild & Hartert, 1915) - Manam I (off north-eastern New Guinea).
longirostris (Mathews, 1928) - Tanimbar Is.
rufolateralis (Gray, GR, 1858) - Aru Is.
lucida Gray, GR, 1858 - Eastern Papuan Is (Trobriand Is, Woodlark I, D'Entrecasteaux Is and Louisiades).
wardelli (Mathews, 1911) - Southern New Guinea (Trans-Fly region) and north-eastern Australia (southern on north-eastern Queensland coast to Fraser I).
melvillensis (Mathews, 1912) - Northern Australia from north-western western Australia (eastern from King Sound and coastal Kimberley) east to north-eastern Arnhem Land and central Cape York Peninsula.
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