- Myiagra rubecula
Identification
Male: Dark blue grey above and white below, black-tipped blue bill surrounded by small bristles.
Females: blue-grey head and back with a distinctive reddish orange chin, throat and breast, white lower parts, pale eye-ring.
Young birds: are brown-grey above with streaked wings and mottled brown chests with a reddish wash.
Similar Species
The female which is similar to the Broad-billed Flycatcher male and female.
Distribution
Northern Australia
Taxonomy
Subspecies[1]
- M. r. papuana:
- Savanna of southern New Guinea and Boigu Island (northern Torres Strait)
- M. r. concinna:
- Northern Australia (King Sound, Western Australia to north-western Queensland)
- M. r. okyri:
- Northern Queensland (Cape York Peninsula)
- M. r. yorki:
- Eastern Australia (Burdekin River, Queensland to far north-eastern New South Wales)
- M. r. rubecula:
- South-eastern Australia (north-eastern New South Wales to central and southern Victoria); > to north
- M. r. sciurorum:
- Louisiade and D'Entrecasteaux archipelagos
Habitat
Dry sclerophyll and mangrove forests, bush and coastal areas.
Behaviour
They wag their tails.
Diet
Diet includes insects.
Breeding
Both sexes build the shallow, cup-shaped nest of torn bits of paperbark (Malleleuca) and grass held together by spiders web and decorated with pieces of bark and lichen; both parents incubate the eggs and feed the young.
Vocalisation
A most amazing song interspersed with a loud metallic click that carries throughout the bush.
References
- Clements, JF. 2008. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2008. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019.
Recommended Citation
- BirdForum Opus contributors. (2025) Leaden Flycatcher. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 4 May 2025 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Leaden_Flycatcher
