Habits
Singly or in twos, probably pairs, and small loose flocks of up to ten. Occasionally larger flocks of up to seventy, especially during fall - winter and on passage.
Food
Arthropods, mainly insects. Also fruit, seeds and occasionally nectar.
Voice
A clear, descending 'chiff-chiff-joey-joey-joey'. Also a canary-like trill.
White-winged Triller (Lalage tricolor) [XC688197]
by Peter Boesman from Moth Block (Casuarina Coastal Reserve Land Care Group) (near Tiwi), Darwin Municipality, Northern Territory, Australia (song)
White-winged Triller (Lalage tricolor) [XC171832]
by James Lambert from Irymple, New South Wales, Australia (song)
Nest
Small, open, shallow, composed of fine rootlets and dry grass, bound with cobweb, placed in the fork of a tree, from 1 - 10 m above the ground.
Eggs (Guide)
2 or 3; blue or green-tinged, blotched and streaked with red-brown; oblong-oval; about 21 x 15 mm. Incubation: about 14 days; by both sexes.
Young
Altricial, nidicolous. Fledge in 12 - 14 days.
Subspecies
No subspecies.
Lalage sueurii and Lalage tricolor (Sibley and Monroe 1990, 1993), cross-regional species, are retained as separate species contra Christidis and Boles (1994) who include tricolor as a subspecies of White-shouldered Triller (Lalage sueurii).
May form a superspecies with White-shouldered Triller (Lalage sueurii) and sometimes considered conspecific.
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