Lemon-bellied Flyrobin
Microeca flavigaster
Small Australian robin, gray above, lacking pale panels in folded wing and white in tail. Except in Kimberley subspecies, pale belly washed with lemon yellow. Often perches near the top of trees, calling frequently. Jacky-winter has white outer tail feathers and no yellow belly; Golden Whistler much larger, with yellow limited to lower belly. Inhabits many habitat types in northern Australia.
Identification
The adult lemon-bellied flyrobin is around 11.5 centimetres (4.5 in) long. The sexes have similar plumage. The nominate subspecies flavigaster has lemon yellow underparts, a white throat, grey face with a white eyebrow stripe, and olive-brown upperparts. Subspecies tormenti has white underparts, more greyish upperparts, has a longer bill and tail and is larger overall. Subspecies flavissima resembles flavigaster but has a more obvious yellow tinge to the upperparts, throat, yellow eyebrow and a shorter tail, while laetissima more closely resembles flavigaster, but has a shorter tail and bill and is larger overall.
Taxonomy
John Gould described the species in 1843 from a specimen from Port Essington in the Northern Territory. The species name is from the Latin word flavus meaning 'yellow', and Ancient Greek gaster meaning 'belly'. Four subspecies are recognised: the nominate flavigaster is found across the top of the Northern Territory, subspecies flavissima in Cape York and New Guinea, subspecies laetissima along the central-northern Queensland coast, and subspecies tormenti in the Kimberley of northwestern Australia. The two Queensland subspecies are separated by the Atherton Tableland and Burdekin-Lynd Divide, and are possibly kept apart by a population of the jacky winter (Microeca fascinans) that replaces it in some areas. Genetic analysis shows that the two Queensland subspecies are very closely related, but that there is quite a large separation from subspecies flavigaster. Subspecies tormenti was not sampled in that study.<p>Subspecies tormenti, known as the Kimberley flyrobin, was considered a separate species for many years. It is unusual in that it lacks the yellow pigmentation of the other subspecies. Les Christidis and Walter Boles reclassified it as a subspecies, since hybrids between subspecies tormenti and flavigaster have been found in the vicinity of Cambridge Gulf—between the ranges of the two subspecies.<p>As well as lemon-bellied flyrobin, the species is also commonly known as lemon-breasted flycatcher (from when belly was thought crude), yellow-bellied flycatcher, yellow-breasted flycatcher, or brown-tailed flycatcher (subspecies tormenti).
- Scientific name
- Microeca flavigaster
- Authority
- Gould, 1843
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Petroicidae
- Genus
- Microeca
Range and habitat
The species ranges from the Ord River in the west to coastal Queensland, and is found in mangroves, paperbark swamp forests, and woodland.
- Migration
- Resident species
Conservation
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
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Medium-sized songbird of woodlands, neighborhoods, and parks. Male grayish brown with black head and wings, faintly orange flanks, and a dark-tipped yellow bill. Female similar but lacks the black head, has much paler orange on the flanks, and is an overall brownish tone. Male similar to Japanese Grosbeak, which has less black on the head, no orange on the flanks, and lacks the dark tip to the bill of most adult male Yellow-billed Grosbeaks. Often detected as it gives a hard "jik!" while flying overhead.
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A small, slender-billed, warbler-like waxbill that is speckled and barred underneath with a reddish face and throat and a rather uniformly brown crown, back, wings, and tail. Forages in the understory and on the ground primarily for ants, alone or in small groups, sometimes in association with ant swarms and mixed-species flocks. Calls include soft whistled “ptiee” notes and repeated high-pitched descending whistles.
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