Habits
Singly or in twos, especially in the breeding season. Small groups of upto six in the non-breeding season.
Food
Small insects.
Voice
A drawn-out metallic, buzzing 'trzzzzeep' interspersed with a quick, clear, musical 'teewip', uttered incessantly during spring and summer. Also a higher, faster, 'tizzzeip' and 'weezzz whit-whit'.
Nest
Small, domed, with a side-entrance, composed of fine grass, plant-down, bound with cobweb, often green leaves of living plants are stitched into the walls or roof structure, in a low shrub, reeds, tussock, close to or under 1 meters above the ground.
Eggs (Guide)
3 or 4; glossy, bright blue, blotched with red-brown and purple; rounded-oval; about 16 x 12 mm. Incubation: about 11 - 15 days; by female.
Young
Altricial, nidicolous. Fledge in about 12 - 15 days.
Subspecies
The following 12 subspecies are recognised:
erythrocephalus Blyth, 1851 - Southern India (southern Mysore, western Tamil Nadu and Kerala).
tytleri Jerdon, 1863 - Northern India and southern Nepal east to northern and western Myanmar and southern China (south-eastern Xizang, western Yunnan).
courtoisi La Touche, 1926 - Southern & eastern China (south-eastern Yunnan east to southern Anhui and north-western Fujian, south to Guanxi and Guangdong).
volitans (Swinhoe, 1859) - Taiwan.
semirufus Cabanis, 1872 - Philippines (except Palawan) and Sulu Archipelago.
rusticus Wallace, 1863 - Sulawesi, Peleng, Buru and Seram.
diminutus Mathews, 1922 - New Guinea lowlands, islands in Torres Strait and north-eastern Australia (northern Queensland).
polionotus Mayr, 1934 - Bismarck Archipelago (New Britain, New Ireland and adjacent islands).
alexandrae Mathews, 1912 - Northern Australia (northern western Australia, interior of northern Territory east to central Queensland.
exilis (Vigors & Horsfield, 1827) - South-eastern Australia (south-eastern Queensland, New South Wales, south-eastern South Australia, south-eastern Victoria, and King I).
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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