Australian Golden Whistler
Australian Golden Whistler
Two species recently separated:
Pachycephala pectoralis.
Pachycephala fuliginosa.
16.5-18.5 cm. Male: head/breastband black, separating white throat from rich golden yellow nape-band and underparts; tail grey with black tip. Female: grey-brown above, progressively washed deeper olive-green from se. Aust. to Q; pale tips to wing coverts form subtle single or double line across wing. Underparts grey-buff; females from coastal n. NSW-Q have lemon wash on vent/undertail-coverts. Bill black, stubby (Tas.) to longish (Q). Juvenile: rich rufous. Immature: like female; pale base to bill; rufous margins to wing feathers. Pairs when breeding, otherwise solitary, or in mixed-species companies. In spring, both sexes display, duet, sing vivaciously, with see-saw posturing.
- Similar Species
- Mangrove Golden, Gilbert's, Grey Whistlers.
- Voice
- many sweet notes; brisk 'sweetawit, sweetawit'; rising 'wheat-wheat-wheat-WHITTLE!', brisk 'dee-dee-dee-ah-WHIT!'. Contact-call: single, rising 'seeep'. Calls after sudden loud noise.
- Habitat
- rainforests, eucalypt forests/woodlands, waterside vegetation, coastal/inland scrubs, mallee/spinifex; brigalow, other dense acacia scrubs; mangroves, orchards, shelter belts, golf courses, parks, gardens.
- Breeding
- Aug.-Jan.
- Nest
- rough cup of bark strips, spider's web, stems, rootlets, skeleton leaves, fern fronds, grass, twigs; low in blackberries, tree ferns, long grass, upright fork 1-4 m high.
- Eggs
- 2-3; oval; white/cream/salmon-pink; freckled, dotted, blotched red-brown, grey, dark brown, black; underlying spots of lavender/dark grey.
- Range & Status
- Australian Golden Whistler: in e. Aust., mountain rainforests above 300 m in ne. Q, s. near Cooktown s. to e. SA, inland to c. Carnarvon Ras.-St George (Q); Brewarrina-Cobar-Mootwingee (NSW); Also many coastal islands s. from Cairns (Q); widespread Tas.; also Norfolk, Lord Howe Is. Populations both sedentary and migatory: in e. Aust. there is autumn-winter migration from highlands to lowlands; elsewhere, north-south or coastal-inland movements in autumn-winter. Also Fiji to Indonesia. Western Whistler: from nw Vic west to Eyre. Pens. and n. to Flinders Ras.-Gawler Ras. SA). In WA, ranges w. from c. Eucla to s. of Shark Bay; inland to Yalgoo-Bonnie Rock-Coolgardie-Karonie.
- Distribution key to races
- 1. pectoralis 2. youngi 3. glaucura 4. contempta (Lord Howe Is.) 5. xanthoprocta (Norfolk Is.)
