Broad-billed flycatcher

Broad-billed flycatcher
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Monarchidae
Genus:	Myiagra
Species:	M. ruficollis
Binomial name
Myiagra ruficollis (Vieillot, 1818)

The broad-billed flycatcher (Myiagra ruficollis) is a species of bird in the Monarchidae family. It is found in Australia, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, subtropical or tropical mangrove forests, and subtropical or tropical moist montane forests.

In Northern Australia the bird is found commonly in moist forests and scrub surrounding permanent and seasonal fresh water areas such as billabongs and wet season marshes. Size ranges from 14 to 17 cm. The bird feeds in the forest canopy on insects and small invertebrates. Unlike co-resident related species such as the paperbark flycatcher (M nana) the broad-billed flycatcher is rarely seen hawking for insects in open areas outside the canopy.

Taxonomy

Broad-billed flycatcher with caterpillar - Fogg Dam, Middle Point, Northern Territory, Australia

The subspecies M. r. fulviventris is sometimes considered to be a full species, the Tanimbar flycatcher (Myiagra fulviventris Sclater, PL, 1883).

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Myiagra ruficollis.

Fogg Dam, Middle Point, Northern Territory, Australia, March 2014

References