Lemon-bellied Flyrobin
Microeca flavigaster· 鸲鹟科(3 photos)
Lemon-bellied Flyrobin
Microeca flavigaster includes
Microeca flavigaster tormenti.
12.5-14 cm. Bill dark grey; lores, slight eye-ring and throat whitish; upperparts dull olive; underparts washed lemon; tail lightly forked; legs dark grey. Immature: browner, streaked paler, mottled darker. Singles, pairs: perches on dead trees, phone wires; sallies high after insects; forages in canopy, flirts tail; hovers over foliage, grasses. High, circling song-flight. Race tormenti 'Kimberley' or 'Brown-tailed Flycatcher': grey-brown; wing-coverts/rump washed olive-green; underparts grey-white, washed buff-grey; tail brown, white spot on each outer tail feather.
- Other name
- Lemon-breasted Flycatcher; Kimberley or Brown-tailed Flycatcher
- Similar Species
- Yellow-legged Flycatcher, Grey Whistler.
- Voice
- sweet, clear; loudest at dawn: brisk 'quick, quick, come with me, Tito', or 'Do be sweet, to Cynthia'; bouncing 'chauncey-chauncey chew!'
- Habitat
- eucalypt woodland, pandanus, by water; edges of rainforest, monsoon forest; mangroves, watercourse-vegetation, parks, gardens.
- Breeding
- Aug.-March.
- Nest
- smallest Aust. nest; tiny shallow cup of bark fibre, spiders' web.
- Eggs
- 1; pale blue, finely spotted purplish red.
- Range & Status
- coastal n. Aust. and islands, from w. Kimberley (WA) to ce. Q. Race tormenti: w. Kimberley. Race flavigaster: e. from c. Ord R. (WA), Top End (NT), s. to c. Elsey-Gulf coast (NT/Q). Race flavissima: C. York Pen. (Q), s. on e. coast to c. Broad Sound (Q). Locally common; scarce above 550 m. Sedentary. Also PNG.
- Distribution key to races
- 1. Microeca flavigaster tormenti 2. Microeca flavigaster flavigaster 3. Microeca flavigaster flavissima 4. Microeca flavigaster laetissima
