Habits
Usually singly or in pairs, less often in small groups, and occasionally in small flocks.
Food
Insects, chiefly flies, procured from the air.
Voice
Spirited, sweet, 'sweet-pretty-creature', uttered both during the day and at night during the breeding season. Also a rattling, 'rikka-tikka-tikka-tik'.
Willie Wagtail (Rhipidura leucophrys) [XC816334]
by Marc Anderson from Georgetown, Etheridge Shire, Queensland, Australia (call)
Willie Wagtail (Rhipidura leucophrys) [XC557745]
by Marc Anderson from Lake Warangai, East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea (call, calls)
Nest
Neat, cup-shaped, well built, composed of fiber bound with cobweb, usually on a horizontal limb of a tree, frequently near water, often in or near a tree containing a nest of a Magpie-lark (Grallina cyanoleuca).
Eggs (Guide)
2 - 4, usually 3; cream-brown to sandy, with spots of brown-grey and grey-black, sometimes forming a zone, at the larger end; long-oval; about 20 x 15 mm. Incubation: about 14 days; by both sexes.
Young
Altricial, nidicolous. Fed by both parents. Fledge in about 14 days.
Subspecies
The following 3 subspecies are recognised:
leucophrys (Latham, 1801) - Mainland Australia south to about 20°S, including Fraser Island off south-eastern Qld and Kangaroo Island off SA.
picata Gould, 1848 - Northern Australia, north of about 20°southern from north-western Kimberley Divide, WA, east to Cape York Peninsula, Qld, including Tiwi Island and Groote Eylandt.
melaleuca (Quoy & Gaimard, 1832) - Moluccas, western Papuan Is, New Guinea and islands (including Goodenough, Fergusson and Normanby, in D'Entrecasteaux Archipelago), Aru Is, Bismarck Archipelago, Buka I, Bougainville I and Solomon Is.
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