The paperbark flycatcher (''Myiagra nana''), also known as the little restless flycatcher, is a

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by th ...

bird in the family Monarchidae. It occurs in tropical woodland and riverine habitats of northern Australia and southern New Guinea. Previously, some authorities lumped the paperbark flycatcher as a distinctive subspecies of the restless flycatcher (''Myiagra inquieta'') of southern and eastern Australia, with which it forms a superspecies.

Taxonomy and systematics

Originally described as ''Seisura nana'' by

John Gould John Gould (; 14 September 1804 – 3 February 1881) was an English ornithologist. He published a number of monographs on birds, illustrated by plates produced by his wife, Elizabeth Gould, and several other artists, including Edward Lear, ...

in 1870, the paperbark flycatcher was long treated as a subspecies of the restless flycatcher (''M. inquieta''), until 1999 when Schodde and Mason identified the distinctness and lack of intergrading in closely situated populations of the two

parapatric In parapatric speciation, two subpopulations of a species evolve reproductive isolation from one another while continuing to exchange genes. This mode of speciation has three distinguishing characteristics: 1) mating occurs non-randomly, 2) gene ...

taxa In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular nam ...

Description

The paperbark flycatcher is broadly similar to the restless flycatcher, with entirely black upperparts from the crown and sides of the head, in contrast with entirely white underparts from the throat to the vent. It is a smaller bird, at only two-thirds the weight of its southern relative, and has a proportionately shorter and broader bill, with longer and stouter rictal bristles. There is no overlap in size between the species. The back and the crown of ''nana'' are the same glossy black, while ''inquieta'' has a slightly paler, slate-grey, back. There are also differences in the vocalisations: ''nana'' almost never use the distinctive "scissors-grinding" call of ''inquieta''.

Distribution and habitat

The flycatcher is found in northern Australia, from the

Kimberley region The Kimberley is the northernmost of the nine regions of Western Australia. It is bordered on the west by the Indian Ocean, on the north by the Timor Sea, on the south by the Great Sandy Desert, Great Sandy and Tanami Desert, Tanami deserts ...

of Western Australia, across 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 ra ...

of the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Aust ...

, to the Gulf Country and south-western

Cape York Peninsula Cape York Peninsula is a large peninsula located in Far North Queensland, Australia. It is the largest unspoiled wilderness in northern Australia.Mittermeier, R.E. et al. (2002). Wilderness: Earth’s last wild places. Mexico City: Agrupació ...

of north-west

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...

, with a population on

Saibai Island Saibai Island, often shortened to just Saibai ( mwp, Saybay), is an island of the Torres Strait Islands archipelago, located in the Torres Strait of Queensland, Australia. The island is situated north of the Australian mainland and south o ...

Torres Strait The Torres Strait (), also known as Zenadh Kes, is a strait between Australia and the Melanesian island of New Guinea. It is wide at its narrowest extent. To the south is Cape York Peninsula, the northernmost extremity of the Australian mai ...

. It is also found in southern

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torr ...

from

Merauke Merauke is a large town and the capital of the South Papua province, Indonesia. It is also the administrative centre of Merauke Regency in South Papua. It is considered the easternmost city in Indonesia. The town was originally called Ermasoe. It ...

eastwards to the

Bensbach River The Bensbach River is a river in southwestern Papua New Guinea. It is located just to the east of the Maro River in Merauke Regency, Indonesia, and just to the west of the Morehead River in Papua New Guinea. The mouth of the river, Torasi Estua ...

in the Middle Fly District. The paperbark flycatcher does not overlap in distribution with the restless; although their ranges abut in northern Queensland there are no signs of intergradation between the two species, and in the area where the ranges meet most of the restless flycatchers are non-breeding migrants. In Australia the paperbark flycatcher inhabits tropical

eucalypt Eucalypt is a descriptive name for woody plants with capsule fruiting bodies belonging to seven closely related genera (of the tribe Eucalypteae) found across Australasia: ''Eucalyptus'', ''Corymbia'', ''Angophora'', '' Stockwellia'', ''Allosyn ...

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the ''plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (se ...

paperbark ''Melaleuca'' () is a genus of nearly 300 species of plants in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae, commonly known as paperbarks, honey-myrtles or tea-trees (although the last name is also applied to species of ''Leptospermum''). They range in size f ...

woodlands and dry riverine woodlands. In New Guinea, where it is locally common along the lower reaches of the

, it frequents scrub, partly submerged trees, and sedgeland bordering rivers on

floodplain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...

s and

savanna A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland- grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to ...

Behaviour

A conspicuous bird, the paperbark flycatcher is usually seen in pairs or singly. It sweeps its tail restlessly from side to side and often hovers near the ground when searching for food.

Breeding

Nesting habits in New Guinea are undescribed. In northern Australia breeding takes place from November to January. The nest is a neat cup built of bark shreds and grass stems in the fork of a dead shrub near water. One whitish egg, spotted reddish-brown and grey, is laid.

References

Notes

Sources

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External links

Egg of paperbark flycatcher
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1923015 paperbark flycatcher Birds of the Northern Territory Birds of Queensland Birds of Western Australia Birds of New Guinea paperbark flycatcher