The shriketits are a group of three species of birds in the genus ''Falcunculus''

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to Australia where they inhabit open

eucalypt Eucalypt is any woody plant with Capsule (fruit), capsule fruiting bodies belonging to one of seven closely related genera (of the tribe Eucalypteae) found across Australia: ''Eucalyptus'', ''Corymbia'', ''Angophora'', ''Stockwellia'', ''Allosyn ...

forest and woodland.

Taxonomy and distribution

Species

Three

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

are recognized, with disjunct ranges: * Northern shriketit (''F. whitei''), or White's shrike-tit - Campbell, AJ, 1910: Originally described as a separate species. It is found in the Kimberley region of north-western Australia and the

Top End The Top End of Australia's Northern Territory is a geographical region encompassing the northernmost section of the Northern Territory, which aside from the Cape York Peninsula is the northernmost part of the Australian continent. It covers a ...

of the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

* Western shriketit (''F. leucogaster''), or white-bellied shrike-tit -

Gould Gould may refer to: People * Gould (name), a surname Places United States * Gould, Arkansas, a city * Gould, Colorado, an unincorporated community * Gould, Ohio, an unincorporated community * Gould, Oklahoma, a town * Gould, West Virginia, an ...

, 1838: sparsely distributed in south-western

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

* Eastern shriketit (''F. frontatus'') - ( Latham, 1801): is in south-eastern Australia from the Lower South-East of

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

, coastally and in the Murray-Darling Basin to south-eastern

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

, with some scattered occurrences further north and west in Queensland

Description

Males are larger than females in wing length, weight, and bill-size. Males have black throats, while females have olive green throats, and both sexes have bold black and white markings on the face.

Behaviour

They feed mainly on insects, spiders and, sometimes, particularly during the breeding season, young birds. Thistle seeds are also taken. They have a parrot-like bill, used for distinctive bark-stripping behaviour, which gains them access to invertebrates. The bird is unobtrusive, and the sound of the bark strips being torn off trees provides an indication of their presence. They nest high in a eucalyptus tree, in a fork of a branch, both sexes sharing the incubation and the rearing of the young. There may be two broods.

References

General sources

* * Dickinson, E. C. 2003. ''The Howard & Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World''. 3rd Ed. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, * Schodde, R. and I. J. Mason. 1999. ''Directory of Australian Birds''. Volume 1: ''Passerines''. CSIRO Publishing, Canberra. {{Taxonbar, from=Q3249159, from2=Q10621783 Endemic birds of Australia Birds of New South Wales Birds of Queensland Birds of South Australia Birds of Victoria (state) Taxa named by Louis Pierre Vieillot