Subspecies Chalcites minutillus barnardi (Mathews, 1912)
- Chrysococcyx barnardi Mathews, G.M. 1912. Notes on Australian cuckoos. Austral Avian Records 1: 2-22 [20] [published anonymously—authorship credited in Austral Avian Rec. 1: 65; tail of holotype probably figured on pl. 359 (bottom right) in Mathews, G.M. 1918. The Birds of Australia. London : Witherby & Co. Vol. 7 pt 4 pp. 321–384 pls 352–362 [19 Dec. 1918]].
Type data:
Holotype AMNH 627025 ♂ adult (G.M. Mathews' coll. no. 1464), Coomooboolaroo, Dawson River, QLD
Comment: for identification of holotype, see Greenway, J.C. 1978. Type specimens of birds in the American Museum of Natural History. Pt 2. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 161: 1–306.
Generic Combinations
- Chalcites (Chalcites) minutillus barnardi (Mathews, 1912).
Distribution
States
New South Wales, Queensland
Extra Distribution Information
Coastal and subcoastal central eastern Australia, breeding north to Fitzroy-Dawson-Mackenzie Rivers basin, QLD, south to Clarence River drainage, possibly Kempsey, NSW, and inland to Yamala and Chinchilla, QLD, and Tenterfield and Glen Innes, NSW—also North Stradbroke and Fraser Ils—and, out of breeding, north to NE QLD (inland to Richmond), Cape York Peninsula, Torres Strait islands and S New Guinea.
IBRA
NSW, Qld: Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Central Mackay Coast (CMC), Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Desert Uplands (DEU), Einasleigh Uplands (EIU), Gulf Plains (GUP), Mount Isa Inlier (MII), NSW North Coast (NNC), Sydney Basin (SB), South East Corner (SEC), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Wet Tropics (WT)
Original AFD Distribution Data
Australian Region
- Australia
- New South Wales: SE coastal
- Queensland: N Gulf, NE coastal
Ecological Descriptors
Arboreal, arthropod-feeder, closed forest, diurnal, mangrove, migratory, open forest, territorial, volant, woodland.
Extra Ecological Information
Randomly dispersed, seasonal breeder, solitary or in dispersed groups on edges of sclerophyllous forests dominated by Casuarina and Melaleuca, feeds by perch-and-pounce sallying, taking insects and their larvae from foliage, flies directly in shallow undulations, breeding males appear to hold territories and court by insistent calling, chasing and courtship feeding, brood parasite parasitizing mainly species of Gerygone Gould, 1841, lays plain olive-bronze eggs, disperses northwards out of breeding in austral autumn and winter.
General References
Brooker, M.G. & Brooker, L.C. 1989. Cuckoo hosts in Australia. Australian Zoological Reviews 2: 1-67 (nidification)
Ford, J. 1981. Hybridization and migration in Australian populations of the Little and Rufous-breasted Bronze-Cuckoos. The Emu 81: 209-222 [publication dated as 1869] (distribution)
McGill, A.R. & Goddard, M.T. 1979. The Little Bronze Cuckoo in New South Wales. Australian Birds 14: 23-24 (nidification, nestling plumage, taxonomy)