Voice
A high, penetrating 'tseit, tseit', given constantly in flight, which in flocks sounds like a musical tinkling. Feeding flocks utter an abrupt, soft 'tsit' to maintain contact.
Nest
Bottle-shaped, composed of dried grasses, lined with feathers and finer grasses, in a low tree or bush.
Eggs (Guide)
3 - 6; pure white; oval; about 14 x 12 mm. Incubation: 12 - 14 days; by both sexes.
Young
Fledge in 15 - 17 days.
Subspecies
The following 3 subspecies are recognised:
ruficauda (Gould, 1837) - Central-eastern Qld, from the Burdekin River Drainage, east to the coast between Halifax Bay and Point Curtis and south along the western watershed of the Great Divide, and formerly south to the upper reaches of the Darling River Drainage Basin, New South Wales Liverpool Plains and west to upper eastern Lake Eyre Drainage Basin - population < 50 and may be extinct.
clarescens (Hartert, 1899) - Central Cape York Peninsula, Qld, from northern Princess Charlotte Bay and Archer River, south to south-eastern Gulf of Carpentaria in the west and round Cooktown - Mossman in the east - population about 5,000.
subclarescens (Mathews, 1912) - Has three distinct populations in coastal and near-inland drainages of north-western Australia; in north-western Pilbara between Shark Bay and De Grey River, WA; in the lower reaches of the Fitzroy Drainage Basin, western Kimberley Divide, WA; and the coastal plains of Cambridge and Joseph Bonaparte Gulfs, eastern Kimberley Divide, WA through northern NT to south-western Gulf of Carpentaria, round the Roper River and the lower reaches of the McArthur River - population 200,000.
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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