Nest
Bottle-shaped, bulky, composed of dried grasses lined with feathers, in grass, near or upon the ground, sometimes in a small tree or bush. Small pieces of charcoal are often placed in the nest chamber.
Eggs (Guide)
4 - 6; pure white; oval; about 17 x 12 mm. Incubation: about 13 - 14 days; by both sexes.
Young
Altricial, nidicolous. Fledge in about 22 days.
Subspecies
Sometimes separated in a monotypic genus, Neopoephila.
The following 2 subspecies are recognised:
personata Gould, 1842 - North-western Australia, between King Sound, WA and south-eastern Gulf of Carpentaria, north-western Qld, south to the middle reaches of the Fitzroy, Ord and Victoria River Drainage Basins in WA - NT, and northern Barkly Tableland, NT - north-western Qld.
leucotis Gould, 1847 - Cape York Peninsula, northern Qld, south to south-eastern Gulf of Carpentaria in the west and to the Lynd - Einasleigh Uplands and round Cape Melville and Cape Flattery in the east.
Similar Species
Long-tailed Finch (Poephila acuticauda) which has a longer tail and the male has a blue-grey head and Black-throated Finch (Poephila cincta) which has a silver-grey head and a black bill.
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