Nest
Bottle-shaped and bulky, composed of dried grasses, bark, and leaves, lined with grass and feathers or fur, in tall grass, a bush or a pandanus tree, or in a man-made recepticle beneath a veranda.
Eggs (Guide)
5 - 8; plain white; oval; about 14 x 12 mm. Incubation: 12 - 14 days; by both sexes.
Young
Altricial, nidicolous. Fledge in about 20 - 21 days.
Subspecies
Proposed subspecies albiventer (described from Claudie R, in north-eastern Queensland) treated as a synonym of evangelinae.
The following 2 subspecies are recognised:
phaeton (Hombron & Jacquinot, 1841) - North-western Australia from King Sound, WA east to the lower reaches of Nicholson River in south-eastern Gulf of Carpentaria, north-western Qld, including the Kimberley Divide and Arnhem Land, and extending south to northern Fitzroy and the upper reaches of Ord and Victoria River Darinage Basins, WA - NT, and northern Barkly Tableland in NT - north-western Qld, with isolated outlier along north-eastern Qld coast between Princess Charlotte Bay and Broad Sound to the drainage basins of Lower Dawson and Mackenzie Rivers.
evangelinae D'Albertis & Salvadori, 1879 - Middle Cape York Peninsula from Iron Ranges and Albatross Bay south to Princes Charlotte Bay and the lower Mitchell River, and extralimitally in the Trans - Fly region, central - southern New Guinea. Considered by some authors to be a distinct species, White-bellied Crimson Finch (Neochmia evangelinae).
Similar Species
Painted Finch (Emblema pictum) which has larger white spots on black underparts.
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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