Alternative names: Chestnut-backed Fantail; Grey-breasted Rufous Fantail
- Rhipidura rufidorsa
Identification
13-14 cm.
- Grey crown and nape
- Buffy to greyish side of head
- Rufous upperparts
- Greyish-brown remiges with rufous edges, rufous wing-coverts
- Long, greyish tail, becoming rufous at base, white tips on rectrices
- Whitish throat
- Mottled grey and buff upper breast
- Buffy white belly and undertail-coverts, buffier flanks
- kumusi is brighter than nominate, kubuna is duller and paler
Sexes similar. Juveniles like adults but with shorter tail.
Distribution
Endemic to New Guinea.
Common to fairly common in lowlands, less common in hills.
Taxonomy
This is a polytypic species[1] consisting of 3 subspecies:
Subspecies
- R. r. rufidorsa
New Guinea, east in the north to Astrolabe Bay, and east in the south at least to the Fly River); also Misool and Yapen islands
- R. r. kumusi
Eastern New Guinea (north slope of the Southeastern Peninsula, but probably occurring west to Astrolabe Bay)
- R. r. kubuna
Eastern New Guinea (south slope of the Southeastern Peninsula)
Habitat
Moist lowland forests. Also in tall secondary growth and swamp forest.
Occurs in the lowlands up to 650 m, locally up to 850 m.
Behaviour
Diet
Feeds on insects. Forages mostly in lower and middle levels of forest. Catches its prey by flycatching and gleaning.
Sometimes in mixed-species flocks together with other small insectivorous passerines.
Breeding
Breeds apparently during dry season. The nest is a small cup with a tail hanging from the underside. It's placed 0.4 to 0.9 m from the ground on a thin horizontal fork in a small, slender shrub. Lays 2 eggs.
Movements
A sedentary species.
References
- Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, S. M. Billerman, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2021. The eBird/Clements checklist of Birds of the World: v2021. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
- Boles, W. (2020). Rufous-backed Fantail (Rhipidura rufidorsa), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.rubfan1.01
Recommended Citation
- BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Rufous-backed Fantail. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 26 April 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Rufous-backed_Fantail
