Northern Fantails are medium-sized fantails.
They have a white throat patch that extends sideways to under the
ear coverts. The chest and sides are covered by a wide grey band
with light white streaking. The rest of the front (belly to
undertail coverts) is white. The front of the head, except for
thin, inconspicuous white eyebrows, is dark brownish-grey. The back
of the head and the rest of the back are grey. The dark-grey wing
feathers also have a brownish tinge. The long tail is dark-grey,
with outer tail feathers that are edged white.
The eyes have dark irises. The long, straight bill is dark-grey;
the legs and feet are grey.
Juveniles
have browner colours.
The overall distribution of this species can be assessed based
on sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to
ebird.org
.
The global distribution of the Northern Fantail is available
HERE
.
There are two races of Northern Fantails.
Race "gularis" is found on islands along the Torres Strait
and farther North, in eastern Indonesia, Timor Leste, New Guinea
and the Solomon Islands.
Race "isura"
is endemic to Australia and can be found in the tropical North of
the country.
The range of Northern Fantails, race "isura", in Australia
extends from about Port Hedland, WA, all
through the Kimberley and the entire Top End of the NT, along a
wide coastal margin along the South coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria
and into most of Cape York peninsula in QLD. In the south-eastern
part of the peninsula and along the QLD East coast, South of Cape
Melville, their distribution is uncertain. There are patches with
known populations as far South as about Townsville, QLD.
Northern Fantails have a preference for wet, tropical forest and mangrove.
B. Hensen reports spotting Northern Fantail, race "isura", nesting in Darwin,
NT, in September 2011. The species was next found at Lee Point,
Darwin, NT, in August 2012.
M. Mearns reports spotting a Northern Fantail, race "isura", in the harbour of
Darwin, NT, in June 2014.
We first spotted Northern Fantails, race "isura", in various locations
in and around Darwin, NT, in August 2014. Various contributors report
finding them in the same area semi-regularly.
J. Greaves found Northern Fantails, race "isura", on Wurrumiyanga,
Bathurst Island, NT, in September 2016.
P. Brown reports finding Northern Fantails, race "isura", at Lake Argyle,
near Kununurra, WA, in April 2018.
Photos
Race "isura"
ADULT
Full-frontal view of a Northern Fantail (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[Charles Darwin NP, Darwin, NT, February 2018]
Near-lateral view of a Northern Fantail (photo courtesy of J. Greaves)
[Wurrumiyanga, Bathurst Island, NT, September 2016]
Near-lateral view of a Northern Fantail on the ground
(photo courtesy of J. Greaves)
[Wurrumiyanga, Bathurst Island, NT, September 2016]
Northern Fantail with its tail fanned (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[Charles Darwin NP, Darwin, NT, February 2018]
Lateral view of a Northern Fantail (photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Lee Point, Darwin, NT, August 2012]
Lateral view of a Northern Fantail (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[Lake Argyle, near Kununurra, WA, April 2018]
Lateral view of a Northern Fantail (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[Charles Darwin NP, Darwin, NT, February 2018]
Near-dorsal view of a Northern Fantail (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[Charles Darwin NP, Darwin, NT, February 2018]
Breeding information
Breeding season: Aug - Jan
Eggs: 2
Incubation period: ?
Fledging age: ?
In favourable conditions Northern Fantails can have two broods
per season.
Here an example of the way we use the audacity software to remove
background noise from sound recordings (noise reduction, NR). The
calls of the bird (below) were recorded against the background of
surf breaking against rocks. audacity managed to completely eliminate
that background, while maintaining a true representation of the
bird calls.
These pages are largely based on our own observations and those of our
contributors.
The structure of these bird pages is explained HERE. For more salient facts on any bird species
please refer to a field guide.