Alternative name: Rossel Island Whistler (meeki)
- Pachycephala leucogastra
Identification
14 - 15cm.
Male:
- Black crown, hindneck, face and broad band on upper breast
- White chin and throat
- Brownish-grey to grey upperparts (darker in meeki)
- Dark brown upperwing and tail
- White rest of underparts, sometimes with grey sides
- Red-brown eye
- Black bill
Female:
- Grey head and breastband
- Female of meeki darker grey and creamy underparts
Juveniles with rufous patches on head and rufous wings.
Distribution
Patchily distributed in New Guinea including Louisiade Archipelago off southeast New Guinea.
Small range but locally common.
Taxonomy
Two subspecies recognized:
- P. l. leucogastra in coastal southeast New Guinea (from Port Moresby northwest to Hall Sound)
- P. l. meeki on Rossel Island in Louisiade Archipelago
Similar birds are reported from Wewak and Lumia and East Sepik Province but their subspecies is not known.
Forms a superspecies with Drab Whistler, Rufous Whistler, Black-headed Whistler and Wallacean Whistler and has been considered conspecific with some of them. Hybrids with Black-headed Whistler recorded.
Habitat
Eucalypt savanna in hills, mangrove forests and rubber plantations. Found from sea-level to 1200m.
Behaviour
Feeds on insects.
Breeding reported in February and June. The nest is a cup made of vegetable material. It's placed about 10 - 20m above the ground in a tree fork or much lower in mangroves. No other information.
Resident species.
References
- Clements, JF. 2008. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2008. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019.
- Del Hoyo, J, A Elliott, and D Christie, eds. 2007. Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 12: Picathartes to Tits and Chickadees. Barcelona: Lynx Edicions. ISBN 978-8496553422
Recommended Citation
- BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) White-bellied Whistler. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 23 November 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/White-bellied_Whistler
External Links
GSearch checked for 2020 platform.1
