Generic Combinations

• Chalcites (Chalcites) minutillus (Gould, 1859).

Taxonomic Decision for Subspecies Arrangement

• Mason, I.J. in Schodde, R. & Mason, I.J. 1997. Aves (Columbidae to Coraciidae). In, Houston, W.W.K. & Wells, A. (eds). Zoological Catalogue of Australia. Melbourne : CSIRO Publishing, Australia Vol. 37.2 xiii 440 pp. [243] (based, for subspecific limits, on Parker, S.A. 1981. Prolegomenon to further studies in the Chrysococcyx "malayanus" group (Aves, Cuculidae). Zoologische Verhandelingen 187: 1–56 and Ford, J. 1981. Hybridization and migration in Australian populations of the Little and Rufous-breasted Bronze-Cuckoos. Emu 81: 209–222 [publication dated as 1869]; and, for specific limits, on Hartert, E. & Stresemann, E. 1925. Ueber die indoaustralischen Glanzkuckucke (Chalcites). Novitates Zoologicae 32: 158–163; Peters, J.L. 1940. Check-list of Birds of the World. Cambridge : Harvard University Press Vol. 4 xii 291 pp.; Friedmann, H. 1968. The evolutionary history of the avian genus Chrysococcyx. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 265: 1–137; Wolters, H.E. 1976. Die Vogelarten der Erde. Eine systematische Liste mit Verbreitungsangaben sowie deutschen und englischen Namen. Hamburg : Paul Parey Lief. 2, 81–160 pp.)

Distribution

States

New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia

IBRA

NSW, NT, Qld, WA: Arnhem Coast (ARC), Arnhem Plateau (ARP), Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Central Arnhem (CA), Central Kimberley (CK), Central Mackay Coast (CMC), Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Daly Basin (DAB), Darwin Coastal (DAC), Desert Uplands (DEU), Dampierland (DL), Einasleigh Uplands (EIU), Gulf Fall and Uplands (GFU), Gulf Coastal (GUC), Gulf Plains (GUP), Mount Isa Inlier (MII), Northern Kimberley (NK), NSW North Coast (NNC), Ord Victoria Plain (OVP), Pine Creek (PCK), Sydney Basin (SB), South East Corner (SEC), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Tiwi Cobourg (TIW), Victoria Bonaparte (VB), Wet Tropics (WT)

Original AFD Distribution Data

Australian Region

• Australia
  • New South Wales: SE coastal
  • Northern Territory: N Gulf, N coastal
  • Queensland: N Gulf, NE coastal
  • Western Australia: N coastal

General References

Condon, H.T. 1975. Checklist of the Birds of Australia. Part 1 Non-Passerines. Melbourne : Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union xx 311 pp. (presenting alternative taxonomic arrangement)

Mathews, G.M. 1912. Notes on Australian cuckoos. Austral Avian Records 1: 2-22 (presenting alternative taxonomic arrangement)

Parker, S.A. 1981. Prolegomenon to further studies in the Chrysococcyx "malayanus" group (Aves, Cuculidae). Zoologische Verhandelingen (Leiden) 187: 1-56 (presenting alternative taxonomic arrangement for specific limits)

Shelley, G.E. 1891. Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum. Catalogue of the Picariae-Cuculidae. London : British Museum Vol. 19 xii 484 pp. 13 pls. (presenting alternative taxonomic arrangement)

Sibley, C.G. & Monroe, B.L., Jr 1990. Distribution and Taxonomy of Birds of the World. New Haven : Yale University Press xxiv 1111 pp. (presenting alternative taxonomic arrangement)

White, C.M.N. & Bruce, M.D. 1986. The Birds of Wallacea (Sulawesi, the Moluccas & Lesser Sunda Islands, Indonesia). An annotated check-list. B.O.U. Check-list No. 7. London : British Ornithologists' Union 524 pp. (presenting alternative taxonomic arrangement)

History of changes

• 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)

History of changes

• Chrysococcyx minutillus Gould, J. 1859. In Proceedings of meetings of Zoological Society of London, March 22, 1859. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1859: 128-129 [128] [prior publication by Gould in Athenaeum 1639: 425 (26 Mar. 1859) and Literary Gazette (n.s.) 39: 406 (26 Mar. 1859), as recorded by Bruce, M.D. & McAllan, I.A.W. 1990. Some problems in vertebrate nomenclature. II. Birds. Part 1. Bollettino del Museo Regionale di Scienze Naturali. Torino 8: 453–485, rejected here because (1) the description is inadequate (=nom. nud.), and (2) of existing usage under ICZN Art. 80(a), insofar as an application by the Standing Committee on Ornithological Nomenclature of the International Ornithological Committee has been submitted to the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature for suppression of all Gould names for birds found after 1990 to have been first published in notices of meetings in the Literary Gazette, London, and Atheneum; hitherto Cuculus malayanus Raffles, 1822 applied as senior synonym for this species, see Hartert, E. & Stresemann, E. 1925. Ueber die indoaustralischen Glanzkuckucke (Chalcites). Novitates Zoologicae 32: 158–163; Peters, J.L. 1940. Check-list of Birds of the World. Cambridge : Harvard University Press Vol. 4 xii 291 pp.; Friedmann, H. 1968. The evolutionary history of the avian genus Chrysococcyx. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 265: 1–137; Condon, H.T. 1975. Checklist of the Birds of Australia Pt 1 Non-passerines. Melbourne : Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union xx 311 pp., but that name applies instead to Chalcites xanthorhynchus (Horsfield, 1821), according to Parker, S.A. 1981. Prolegomenon to further studies in the Chrysococcyx "malayanus" group (Aves, Cuculidae). Zoologische Verhandelingen 187: 1–56].

  Type data:

   Holotype BMNH 1881.5.1.1958 unsexed, Port Essington, NT (as Port Essington, on the north coast of Australia)
  Comment: for identification of holotype, see Shelley, G.E. 1891. Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum. Catalogue of the Picariae-Cuculidae. London : British Museum Vol. 19 xii 484 pp. 13 pls (299); Warren, R.L.M. 1966. Type-specimens of Birds in the British Museum (Natural History). Vol. 1 Non-Passerines. London : British Museum ix 320 pp.
• Chrysococcyx minutillus perplexus Mathews, G.M. 1912. Additions and corrections to my Reference List to the Birds of Australia. Austral Avian Records 1(2): 25-52 [Date published 2 Apr 1912] [38] [published anonymously; authorship credited in Austral Avian Rec. 1: 65; male syntype apparently figured on plate 358 (lower figure) and described in detail on pp. 361–362 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:

   
  Syntype(s) AMNH 626994 imm. (G.M. Mathews' coll. no. unspecified), Parry's Creek, north WA; AMNH 626995 ♂ (G.M. Mathews' coll. no. unspecified), Parry's Creek, north WA
  Comment: for identification of syntypes, 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.
• Chrysococcyx minutillus melvillensis Zietz, F.R. 1914. The avifauna of Melville Island, Northern Territory. South Australian Ornithologist 1(1): 11-18 [14].

  Type data:

   Holotype SAMA B1288 ♂, Melville Island, NT (locality inferred, not specified)
  Comment: for identification of holotype, see Condon, H.T. 1976. Vertebrate type-specimens in the South Australian Museum IV. Birds. Records of the South Australian Museum 17: 189–193; Parker, S.A. 1981. Prolegomenon to further studies in the Chrysococcyx "malayanus" group (Aves, Cuculidae). Zoologische Verhandelingen 187: 1–56.

Taxonomic Decision for Synonymy

• Parker, S.A. 1981. Prolegomenon to further studies in the Chrysococcyx "malayanus" group (Aves, Cuculidae). Zoologische Verhandelingen (Leiden) 187: 1-56 [30-32]

Generic Combinations

• Chalcites (Chalcites) minutillus minutillus (Gould, 1859).

Distribution

States

Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia

Extra Distribution Information

Coastal and subcoastal N Australia, west to Broome, WA, east to south-east head of Gulf of Carpentaria (Normanton), QLD, and south inland to middle Fitzroy and Ord River drainages, WA, the middle Victoria River drainage, Mataranka, NT, and estuarine streams of south coast of Gulf of Carpentaria, NT, QLD—also off-shore islands of Buccaneer and Bonaparte Archipelagos, Melville-Bathurst, Groote Eylandt, Sir Edward Pellew group and Wellesley.

IBRA

NT, Qld, WA: Arnhem Coast (ARC), Arnhem Plateau (ARP), Central Arnhem (CA), Central Kimberley (CK), Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Daly Basin (DAB), Darwin Coastal (DAC), Dampierland (DL), Einasleigh Uplands (EIU), Gulf Fall and Uplands (GFU), Gulf Coastal (GUC), Gulf Plains (GUP), Mount Isa Inlier (MII), Northern Kimberley (NK), Ord Victoria Plain (OVP), Pine Creek (PCK), Tiwi Cobourg (TIW), Victoria Bonaparte (VB)

Original AFD Distribution Data

Australian Region

• Australia
  • Northern Territory: N Gulf, N coastal
  • Queensland: N Gulf
  • Western Australia: N coastal

Ecological Descriptors

Arboreal, arthropod-feeder, closed forest, diurnal, mangrove, open forest, sedentary, territorial, volant, woodland.

Extra Ecological Information

Randomly dispersed, seasonal breeder, solitary or in dispersed sedentary pairs in monsoon scrubs, feeds by perch-and-pounce sallying, taking insects and their larvae from leaves and branchlets of trees, flies directly in shallow undulations, breeding males appear to hold territories in natal area and court by insistent calling, chasing and courtship feeding, brood parasite, parasitizing mainly species of Gerygone Gould, 1841, lays plain olive-bronze eggs.

General References

Brooker, M.G. & Brooker, L.C. 1989. Cuckoo hosts in Australia. Australian Zoological Reviews 2: 1-67 (nidification)

Crawford, D.N. 1972. Birds of Darwin area, with some records from other parts of Northern Territory. The Emu 72: 131-148 (nidification, display)

Deignan, H.G. 1950. Notes on some forms of the genus Chalcites Lesson. The Emu 49: 167-168 (taxonomy)

Goodwin, D. in Hall, B.P. (ed.) 1974. Birds of the Harold Hall Australian Expeditions 1962–70. A report on the collections made for the British Museum (Natural History). Results of the Harold Hall Australian Expeditions, No. 33. London : British Museum. 10 pls col. pl. map xi 396 pp. (morphology, soft part colours, nidification)

History of changes

• Chrysococcyx russatus Gould, J. 1868. On two new Australian birds. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1868: 74-76 [76] [as russata, corrected under ICZN Arts. 32(c) & (d)].

  Type data:

   
  Syntype(s) BMNH 1881.5.1.1952 adult, Somerset, Cape York Peninsula, QLD (as Cape-York district of Queensland); BMNH no. unspecified unsexed (3 specimens), Somerset, Cape York Peninsula, QLD (as Cape-York district of Queensland)
  Comment: for identification of syntypes, see Shelley, G.E. 1891. Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum. Catalogue of the Picariae-Cuculidae. London : British Museum Vol. 19 xii 484 pp. 13 pls (300); Warren, R.L.M. 1966. Type-specimens of Birds in the British Museum (Natural History). Vol. 1 Non-Passerines. London : British Museum ix 320 pp.; Parker, S.A. 1981. Prolegomenon to further studies in the Chrysococcyx "malayanus" group (Aves, Cuculidae). Zoologische Verhandelingen 187: 1–56.

Distribution

States

Queensland

Extra Distribution Information

Cape York Peninsula south on west coast to Mitchell River, and NE QLD south on east coast to Broad Sound, and inland to Hann River and coast scarps of Great Dividing Range—also islands in SW Torres Strait (Moa, Booby, Prince of Wales) and off east coast (Dunk, Hinchinbrook).

IBRA

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), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Wet Tropics (WT)

Original AFD Distribution Data

Australian Region

• Australia
  • Queensland: N Gulf, NE coastal

Ecological Descriptors

Arboreal, arthropod-feeder, closed forest, diurnal, mangrove, open forest, sedentary, territorial, volant, woodland.

Extra Ecological Information

Randomly dispersed, seasonal breeder, solitary or in dispersed groups in and on edges of closed forest, 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.

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)

Mathews, G.M. 1919. The Birds of Australia. London : Witherby & Co. Vol. 7 pts 1-5 499 +xii pp. pls 325-370. (morphology, nidification)

North, A.J. 1912. Nests and Eggs of Birds Found Breeding in Australia and Tasmania. Sydney : Australian Museum Spec. Cat. 1 Vol. 3 vii 362 pp. (nidification)

History of changes