Satin Flycatcher, male.
Photo: Purnell Collection © Australian Museum
Satin Flycatcher, female.
Photo: Purnell Collection © Australian Museum
Distribution map of Myiagra cyanoleuca
Map © Birds Australia Birdata
Satin Flycatcher
Scientific name: Myiagra cyanoleuca
Family: Dicruridae
Order: Passeriformes
- Featured Bird Groups
- Small insect-eating birds
What does it look like?
Description
The Satin Flycatcher is a small blue-black and white bird with a small crest. The sexes are dimorphic (have two forms). Males are glossy blue-black above, with a blue-black chest and white below, while females are duskier blue-black above, with a orange-red chin, throat and breast, and white underparts and pale-edged wing and tail feathers. Young birds are dark brown-grey above, with pale streaks and buff edges to the wing feathers, and a mottled brown-orange throat and chest. It has sometimes been called the Shining Flycatcher, but this is the common name of another species, M. alecto. It is an active, mobile species
Similar species
The Leaden Flycatcher, M. rubecula, is very similar, with males less glossy about the head and throat and the females and juveniles generally lighter blue-grey above. Both sexes of the Broad-billed Flycatcher, M. ruficollis, are also similar, but lighter in colouring, and have a broader, boat-shaped bill; also, this species only overlaps in range with the Satin Flycatcher in far northern Queensland.
Where does it live?
Distribution
The Satin Flycatcher is found along the east coast of Australia from far northern Queensland to Tasmania, including south-eastern South Australia. It is also found in New Guinea. The Satin Flycatcher is not a commonly seen species, especially in the far south of its range, where it is a summer breeding migrant.
Habitat
The Satin Flycatcher is found in tall forests, preferring wetter habitats such as heavily forested gullies, but not rainforests.
Seasonal movements
The Satin Flycatcher is a migratory species, moving northwards in winter to northern Queensland and Papua New Guinea, returning south to breed in spring.
What does it do?
Feeding
The Satin Flycatcher takes insects on the wing, foraging actively from perches in the mid to upper canopy. After the breeding season, it may forage in loose groups, usually of adults and their newly-fledged young, in drier, more open forests.
Breeding
The Satin Flycatcher nests in loose colonies of two to five pairs nesting at intervals of about 20 m - 50 m apart. It builds a broad-based, cup-shaped nest of shredded bark and grass, coated with spider webs and decorated with lichen. The nest is placed on a bare, horizontal branch, with overhanging foliage, about 3 m - 25 m above the ground. Both sexes build the nest, incubate the eggs and feed the young. Nests may be parasitised by the Brush Cuckoo and, sometimes, the Pallid Cuckoo, Horsfield's Bronze-Cuckoo or the Golden Bronze-Cuckoo.
References
Schodde, R. and Tideman, S.C. (eds) 1990. Reader's Digest Complete Book of Australian Birds (2nd Edition). Reader's Digest (Australia) Pty Ltd, Sydney.
Morcombe, M. 2000. Field guide to Australian Birds. Steve Parish Publishing.
Simpson, K and Day, N. 1999. Field guide to the birds of Australia, 6th Edition. Penguin Books, Australia.