Grey Fantail
Rhipidura albiscapa· 扇尾鹟科(5 photos)
Grey Fantail
14-17 cm. Grey with short white eyebrow; white mark behind eye; white tips to wing coverts; white throat and whisker-mark; dark breastband; underparts white, fawn or buffish. Outer feathers of dark grey fantail have white shafts and are edged/broadly tipped white, or wholly white, according to race (see plate). Immature (all races): browner; head markings buffish; wing coverts tipped buff. Singles, pairs, open companies: switches spread tail; stunts, loops, dives after flying insects. Forages in foliage to 30 m+; joins feeding associations.
- Similar Species
- Mangrove Grey Fantail, Northern Fantail.
- Voice
- sharp 'dek'; sweet, tinny, animated fiddle-like song, ascending, ending in drawn-out, rising, silvery notes. Habitat: coastal/inland scrubs, mangroves, rainforests, eucalypt forests/woodlands; watercourses, golf courses, orchards, parks, gardens.
- Breeding
- July-Dec.
- Nest
- beautiful small grey cup, tailed like wineglass without a base, of fine grass, bark strips, plant fibre, spiders' web; in slender horizontal fork of shrub, tree, low to 12 m.
- Eggs
- 2-3 (4); yellowish or fawn-white, spotted light brown, rufous, grey.
- Range & Status
- Aust., Tas., coastal islands: widespread except driest deserts. Race keasti: highlands of ne. Q; alisteri: e. and se. Aust.; nominate race: Tas./Bass Strait Is.; albicauda: w. inland Aust.; preissi: sw. WA (not illustrated). In se. Aust., Tas. and sw. WA, regular migrant, birds return Sept.-Oct. to breed, move n., inland and down from mountain forests in March-April. Also PNG, Solomon Is., New Heb., New Cal.
- Distribution key to races
- 1. Rhipidura albiscapa keasti 2. Rhipidura albiscapa alisteri 3. Rhipidura albiscapa albiscapa 4. Rhipidura albiscapa preissi 5. Rhipidura albiscapa albicauda 6. Rhipidura albiscapa pelzelni (Norfolk I.)
