Mangrove Golden Whistler

Morphology

The Mangrove Golden Whistler is between 16-17 cm, and looks very similar to the more widely distributed Golden Whistler.
Males have a black head and nape (back of the head), with a bright yellow collar around the neck, extending down to the underside of the body. The back and tail coverlets (body feathers extending over the tail feathers) are olive green, with grey wings. The tail is black, which is the main distinguishing feature from the Golden Whistler. The throat and cheeks are white. The black extends from the head down to form a band on the chest, separating the yellow underside and white throat.
The females are less distinctive, with a mostly grey head and back, pale grey throat, olive green tail and a whitish to yellow belly.

Evolution

The Mangrove Golden Whistler belongs to the Family Pachycephalidae, which includes the whistlers, shrike thrushes, shrike tits. They are Australasian in distribution, extending from south east Asia to Australia, including New Zealand and many Pacific islands. The Mangrove Golden Whistler is comprised of several subspecies, with the Pilbara and Kimberley regions inhabited by P. melanura melanura. Pachycephala m. spinicauda is found near the border with the Northern Territory, and hybrids can be found where the two subspecies meet, between Port Warrender and Cambridge Gulf. The Mangrove Golden Whistler is most closely related to the Golden Whistler (P. pectoralis), itself comprised of many subspecies. In Western Australia, areas where mangroves do not grow break up the distribution of the Mangrove Golden Whistler. These areas have been tested as long-term barriers to dispersal, and the possibility for populations to be distinct on either side of these barriers.

Behaviour

The Mangrove Golden Whistler feeds in the canopy on mangrove habitat, and is less frequently seen closer to the ground.

Method of reproduction

Sexual

Habitat

Terrestrial

The Mangrove Golden Whistler is restricted to mangroves.

Distribution

The Mangrove Golden Whistler as found distributed across the Australian monsoonal tropics, including southern New Guinea.
In Western Australia, its distribution is in the mangrove habitat, north of Exmouth, and is broken up by the presence and absence of mangrove habitat, to which it is restricted. The major break in its distribution in WA is eighty-mile beach, located between the Pilbara and Kimberley regions.
Not endemic to Western Australia.