Crested Shrike-tit

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Crested Shriketit
Male
Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Suborder: Passeri
Family: Pachycephalidae
Genus: Falcunculus
Vieillot, 1816
Species: F. frontatus
Binomial name
Falcunculus frontatus
Latham, 1802

The Crested Shriketit (Falcunculus frontatus) is a bird endemic to Australia where it inhabits open eucalypt forest and woodland.

Taxonomy and distribution

Eastern Crested Shriketit

Recent work with nuclear gene sequencing suggests that the Crested Shriketits and the Wattled Ploughbill may require their own family, Falcunculidae (Dickinson 2003). There are three subspecies (sometimes considered full species) with disjunct ranges:[2][3]

  • Western Crested Shriketit (F. f. leucogaster) - sparsely distributed in south-western Western Australia
  • Northern Crested Shriketit (F. f. whitei) - rare, with isolated records in the Kimberley region of north-western Australia and the Top End of the Northern Territory
  • Eastern Crested Shriketit (F. f. frontatus) - the stronghold of the species in south-eastern Australia from the Lower South-East of South Australia, coastally and in the Murray-Darling Basin to south-eastern Queensland, with some scattered occurrences further north and west in Queensland

Description

Males are larger than females in wing length, weight, and bill-size.[4] Males have black throats, while females have olive green.

Behaviour

It feeds mainly on insects, spiders and, sometimes, particularly during the breeding season, young birds. Thistles are also taken. It has a parrot-like bill, used for distinctive bark-stripping behaviour, which gains it access to invertebrates.

Status and conservation

The Eastern Crested Shriketit is evaluated as being of Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, the Northern Crested Shriketit is considered Endangered, and the Western Crested Shriketit is listed as Near Threatened.[1] Both the Northern and Western Crested Shriketits suffer from habitat loss and fragmentation.[5]

female

References

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 BirdLife International (2012). "Falcunculus frontatus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 26 November 2013. 
  2. ↑ Higgins & Peter (2002)
  3. ↑ Higgins, P. J.; Peter, J. M. (2002). Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds. Vol.6: Pardalotes to Shrike-thrushes (1. publ. ed.). Melbourne: Oxford University Press. pp. 1050–1063. ISBN 0-19-553762-9. 
  4. ↑ Noske, Richard (2003). "Does the crested shrike‐tit Falcunculus frontatus exhibit extended parental care?". Corella 27: 118–119. 
  5. ↑ West, Judy. "Water for a Healthy Country". Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation. Retrieved 12 November 2011. 

Sources

  • del Hoyo, J.; Elliot, A. & Christie D. (editors). (2007). Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 12: Picathartes to Tits and Chickadees. Lynx Edicions. ISBN 978-84-96553-42-2
  • Dickinson, E. C. 2003. The Howard & Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World. 3rd Ed. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J.
  • Schodde, R. and I. J. Mason. 1999. Directory of Australian Birds. Passerines: i-x, 1-851. CSIRO Publishing, Canberra.

External links

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