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Yellow-breasted Boatbill
(Machaerirhynchus flaviventer)
: "Boat-billed Flycatcher", "Yellow-breasted Wherrybill",
"Yellow-breasted Flatbill", "Yellow-breasted Flycatcher"
Size: 11-12.5 cm
Weight: 9-12 g
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Physical description |
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Click here for a physical description
Yellow-breasted Boatbills are very small flycatchers.
Their plumage is
dimorphic, i.e.
males and
females
are slightly different. Like all Australian
flycatchers, they have "whiskers" on both sides of the bill.
Male
Yellow-breasted Boatbills have a black cap, a wide black
eye stripe, black ear coverts, lores and black shoulders with
two white bars. The long, wide, yellow eyebrows reach from the
base of the bill to behind the ear coverts. The front, down to
the undertail coverts, is bright yellow, except for a white
throat patch. The back is dark-grey to dark-olive. The flight
feathers are dark-grey to black, with narrow yellow to olive
edge lining. The dark-grey tail feathers have white terminal
outer edges.
Female
Yellow-breasted Boatbills have a much larger whitish
throat patch than the
males
and their front is greyish
olive-yellow, with some darker grey chevrons. The cap and
back, which are near-black in
males,
are dark-olive in
females.
The bills of both sexes are very wide; the
males'
bill is black,
females
have a dark-grey bill. Both sexes have eyes with dark irises.
The legs and feet of both sexes are grey.
Juveniles
resemble
females,
but have more brownish wings.
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Taxonomy, classification |
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See
Yellow-breasted Boatbill at Wikipedia .
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Range, habitat, finding this species |
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Click here for information on habitat
and range
The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and
specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found,
based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to
ebird.org
.
The global distribution of the Yellow-breasted Boatbill is available
HERE
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Yellow-breasted Boatbills populate West Papua (eastern Indonesia),
New Guinea and north-eastern Australia.
In Australia two races can be found,
both of which are endemic.
Nominate race
"flaviventer"
occurs only in a (near-)coastal fringe along the tip of Cape
York peninsula, in Far-North QLD. On the East coast their range
goes as far South as almost Cape Melville.
Race
"secundus"
resides farther South along the QLD East coast, from about Black
Mountain NP in the North to Townsville, QLD, in the South.
Yellow-breasted Boatbills are found only in tropical/subtropical
rainforest.
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Sightings |
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Click here for sighting information
Race "secundus"
B. Hensen reports spotting Yellow-breasted Boatbills, race
"secundus",
at Julatten, QLD, in July 2013.
M. Eaton reports finding a Yellow-breasted Boatbill, race
"secundus",
at Julatten, QLD, in July 2018. Another was found at Paluma Rainforest,
near Townsville, QLD, in September 2020.
J. Boettcher, FNQ Nature Tours found a Yellow-breasted Boatbill, race
"secundus",
at Cape Tribulation, QLD, in December 2019.
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Photos |
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Race "secundus"
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ADULT |
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MALE |
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Frontal view of a male Yellow-breasted Boatbill
(photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Julatten, QLD, July 2013]
Near-frontal view of a male Yellow-breasted Boatbill
(photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Julatten, QLD, July 2013]
Lateral view of a male Yellow-breasted Boatbill
(photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Julatten, QLD, July 2013]
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FEMALE |
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Near-frontal view of a female Yellow-breasted Boatbill
(photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Julatten, QLD, July 2013]
Near-frontal view of a female Yellow-breasted Boatbill
looking for prey (photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Julatten, QLD, July 2013]
Near-lateral/ventral view of a female Yellow-breasted Boatbill;
note the name-giving extremely wide bill
(photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Julatten, QLD, July 2013]
Lateral view of a female Yellow-breasted Boatbill
(photo courtesy of J. Boettcher, FNQ Nature Tours)
[Cape Tribulation, QLD, December 2019]
Dorsal/ventral view of a female Yellow-breasted Boatbill
(photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Julatten, QLD, July 2018]
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Call(s)/Song |
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For this species we have recorded the following call(s)/song. The
interpretation of their meaning is our own; are welcome.
More Yellow-breasted Boatbill sound recordings are available at
xeno-canto.org
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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.