Leaden Flycatcher
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 Male, showing white breast and grey throat
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| Myiagra rubecula (Latham, 1801) |
The Leaden Flycatcher (Myiagra rubecula) is a species of passerine bird in the family Monarchidae. Around 15 cm (6 in) in length, the male is a shiny lead-grey with white underparts, while the female has grey upperparts and a rufous throat and breast. It is found in eastern and northern Australia, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical mangrove forests.
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[edit] Taxonomy
The Leaden Flycatcher was first described by ornithologist John Latham in 1802, from an illustration in the Watling drawings.[1] Its specific epithet is derived from the diminutive of ruber, Latin 'red'.[2] A local name around Sydney is Frogbird, derived from its guttural call.[3]Other variants of its common name include Blue- or Leaden-coloured Flycatcher.[4] John Gould described and named the Pretty Flycatcher (Myiagra concinna) in 1848, which has since been subsumed into this species.[5]
The Leaden Flycatcher is a member of a group of birds termed monarch flycatchers. This group is considered either as a subfamily Monarchinae, together with the fantails as part of the drongo family Dicruridae,[6] or as a family Monarchidae in its own right.[7] They are not closely related to either their namesakes, the Old World flycatchers of the family Muscicapidae; early molecular research in the late 1980s and early 1990s revealed the monarchs belong to a large group of mainly Australasian birds known as the Corvida parvorder comprising many tropical and Australian passerines.[8] More recently, the grouping has been refined somewhat as the monarchs have been classified in a 'Core corvine' group with the crows and ravens, shrikes, birds of paradise, fantails, drongos and mudnest builders.[9]
[edit] Subspecies
Five subspecies are currently recognised:
- M. r. rubecula is the nominate subspecies originally described by Latham from Southeastern Australia.
- M. r. concinna, called the Pretty Flycatcher by John Gould, occurs in northwestern Australia.
- M. r. okyri was described by Schodde and Mason in 1999. It is an unusual non-migratory form from Cape York. The specific epithet is an anagram of yorki. The holotype was collected from Coen in north Queensland.[10]
- M. r. papuana, from New Guinea and Torres Strait islands was named by Rothschild and Hartert in 1918.[11]
- M. r. yorki was named by Gregory Mathews in 1912.[12]
[edit] Description
.jpg/250px-Myiagra_rubecula_(female).jpg)
Kobble Creek, SE Queensland
The Leaden Flycatcher is 14.5-16 cm (6-6½ in) long and weighs around 10-15 g. It is a shiny lead-grey in colour with a brownish tinge to the wings, a bluish black bill, black legs and dark brown iris. The male has darker grey lores, and a white breast and belly, while the female has an orange-tan throat and breast with a white belly. The juvenile resembles the adult female, but with paler wing-edges.[4]
[edit] Distribution and habitat
The Leaden Flycatcher is found from King Sound in northwestern Australia, across the Top End to Cape York, and then down the east coast to central-southern Victoria. It is rare in Tasmania. It is highly migratory within this range. Sclerophyll forest, rainforest margins, mangroves and coastal scrub are the preferred habitats.[13]
[edit] Behaviour
As its name suggests, the Leaden Flycatcher is insectivorous. A very active and agile bird, it hops between branches and catches insects in flight.[4]
[edit] Breeding
Breeding season is September to February with one brood raised. The nest is a deep cup made of strips of bark and dry grass, woven together with spider webs and decorated with lichen, generally sited on a small branch well away from the trunk of a sizeable tree some 5-10 m above the ground. Two or three white eggs tinted bluish, greyish or lavender and splotched with dark grey-brown are laid measuring 17 mm x 14 mm. They have an unusual swollen oval shape.[13] The species is parasitised by the Brush Cuckoo (Cacomantis variolosus).[13]
[edit] References
- ^ Boles (The Robins and Flycatchers of Australia), p. 322
- ^ Simpson DP (1979). Cassell's Latin Dictionary, 5, London: Cassell Ltd., 883. ISBN 0-304-52257-0.
- ^ Boles (The Robins and Flycatchers of Australia), p. 320
- ^ a b c Boles (The Robins and Flycatchers of Australia), p. 325
- ^ Gould, J (1848). "Descriptions of some new species of Australian birds". Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 1847 (15): 220-22.
- ^ Christidis L, Boles WE (1994). The Taxonomy and Species of Birds of Australia and its Territories. Melbourne: RAOU.
- ^ Christidis L, Boles WE (2008). Systematics and Taxonomy of Australian Birds. Canberra: CSIRO Publishing, p. 174. ISBN 9780643065116.
- ^ Sibley, Charles Gald & Ahlquist, Jon Edward (1990): Phylogeny and classification of birds. Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn.
- ^ Cracraft J, Barker FK, Braun M, Harshman J, Dyke GJ, Feinstein J, Stanley S, Cibois A, Schikler P, Beresford P, García-Moreno J, Sorenson MD, Yuri T, Mindell DP (2004). "Phylogenetic relationships among modern birds (Neornithes): toward an avian tree of life", in Cracraft J, Donoghue MJ: Assembling the tree of life. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 468-89. ISBN 0195172345.
- ^ Schodde R, Mason IJ (1999). The Directory of Australian Birds : Passerines. A Taxonomic and Zoogeographic Atlas of the Biodiversity of Birds in Australia and its Territories.. Collingwood, Australia: CSIRO Publishing, p. 510.
- ^ Rothschild LW, Hartert E (1918). "Further notes on the birds of Sudest Island, or Tagula, in the Louisiade Group". Novit. Zool. 25: 313-26.
- ^ Mathews GM (1912). "A Reference-List to the Birds of Australia". Novit. Zool. 18: 171-455.
- ^ a b c Beruldsen, G (2003). Australian Birds: Their Nests and Eggs. Kenmore Hills, Qld: self, p. 367-68. ISBN 0-646-42798-9.
- BirdLife International 2004. Myiagra rubecula. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Downloaded on 26 July 2007.
[edit] Cited text
- Boles, Walter E. (1988). The Robins and Flycatchers of Australia. Sydney: Angus & Robertson. ISBN 0-207-15400-7.
