New Zealand Fantail - BirdForum Opus

Photo © by the late Rookery
Cape Kidnappers, New Zealand, 25 June 2015

Rhipidura fuliginosa

Identification

Photo © by the late Rookery
Havelock North, New Zealand, 4 June 2013

14–17 cm (5½-6¾ in)
There are two colour morphs
Pied Morph

• Dark olive brown head and back
• White tail
• Yellow stomach
• White splashes on neck and above the eye
• Long spread tail makes identification very easy
  

Juveniles mostly brownish-black bodies, they lack the white eyebrows, and breast bands
Black Morph (rarely seen on North Island)

• Almost entirely black
• Blackish-brown over the rump, belly and flight feathers
• Occasionally they have a white spot over each ear
• Black morph fantails never have white on their tail feathers
  

Juvenile black fantails tend to be more dark brown than black

Distribution

New Zealand

Taxonomy

Formerly lumped with Grey Fantail and/or the Mangrove Fantail. The three form a superspecies.

Subspecies

Nominate subspecies, Black morph
Photo © by C Chad
Preservation Inlet, Fiordland, South Island, New Zealand, 29 April 2018

There are 4 subspecies^[1]:

• R. f. fuliginosa:

• Stewart Island and South Island (New Zealand)

• R. f. placabilis:

• North Island (New Zealand)

• R. f. penita:

• Chatham Islands

• R. f. cervina:

• Formerly Lord Howe Island Extinct

Habitat

A variety of woodlands, parks, gardens and forests.

Behaviour

Actions

Immature
Photo © by the late Rookery
Havelock North, New Zealand, 17 February 2009

Often fans tail broadly, and does a little dance on the forest floor.

Diet

Their diet mostly consists of flying insects such as beetles, flies, butterflies and moths, but also fruit and berries.

Breeding

A compact, cup shaped nest is built out of fibres, moss and bark lined with cobwebs. Incubation takes 15 days. Four or five broods are common.

References

Subspecies fuliginosa
Photo © by craigwilson
Waitati, New Zealand, 6 June 2017

1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, S. M. Billerman, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2019. The eBird/Clements Checklist of Birds of the World: v2019. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
2. Boles, W. (2017). New Zealand Fantail (Rhipidura fuliginosa). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. (retrieved from http://www.hbw.com/node/59146 on 20 March 2017).
3. Higgins,P.J.; Peter, J.M.; Cowling, S.J. (eds) 2006. Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic birds. Vol. 7, boatbill to starlings. Oxford University Press, Melbourne.
4. Powlesland, R.G. 2013 [updated 2017]. New Zealand fantail. In Miskelly, C.M. (ed.) New Zealand Birds Online. www.nzbirdsonline.org.nz

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2023) New Zealand Fantail. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 26 March 2023 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/New_Zealand_Fantail

External Links

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