White-breasted Woodswallow
Artamus leucorynchus· 燕鵙科(3 photos)
Photographed In:
Locations:
White-breasted Woodswallow
16-18 cm. Upperparts/upperbreast brownish slate-grey; cut off sharply by pure white underparts; rump white; tail wholly dark grey - unique combination, prominent in flight. Pairs, small flocks, often over water.
- Similar Species
- Masked Woodswallow.
- Voice
- brisk 'pert pert', somewhat like toy trumpet; pleasant song includes mimicry.
- Habitat
- dead or live trees beside/over rivers, lakes, wetlands, coasts; islands; mangroves, paperbarks, river red gum forests; jetties, channel-piles.
- Breeding
- Aug.-Jan., in loose colony.
- Nest
- cup of twigs, grass; to 25 m in fork, branch, broken trunk/spar; protruding bark, mistletoe-clump, tree in water, street tree, palm, mangrove, artificial structure. May use old nest of Magpie-lark, Welcome Swallow.
- Eggs
- 3-4; pink-white to cream; freckled, spotted, red-brown, dark grey.
- Range & Status
- from Shark Bay (WA), around coastal n. Aust. to Sydney (NSW) and widely through e. inland, s. to nw. SA and s. through L. Eyre Basin to Murray mallee (SA)-Murray Valley/n. Vic. Summer breeding migrant to se. Aust., (Aug.-April); winters inland and n. Aust. Casual s. and w. Vic., King I. Sedentary in coastal n.; migratory/nomadic elsewhere. Also Torres Strait, Fiji to PNG, Indonesia, Philippines.
- Distribution key to races
- 1. Artamus leucorynchus leucopygialis
