Lemon-breasted Flycatcher

About the Lemon-breasted Flycatcher

The lemon-bellied flyrobin or lemon-bellied flycatcher (Microeca flavigaster) is a species of bird in the family Petroicidae. Found in Australia, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea, its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests and subtropical or tropical mangrove forests.

John Gould described the species in 1843 from a specimen from Port Essington in the Northern Territory. The species name is from the Latin word flavus meaning 'yellow', and Ancient Greek gaster meaning 'belly'. Four subspecies are recognised: the nominate flavigaster is found across the top of the Northern Territory, subspecies flavissima in Cape York and New Guinea, subspecies laetissima along the central-northern Queensland coast, and subspecies tormenti in the Kimberley of northwestern Australia. The two Queensland subspecies are separated by the Atherton Tableland and Burdekin-Lynd Divide, and are possibly kept apart by a population of the jacky winter (Microeca fascinans) that replaces it in some areas. Genetic analysis shows that the two Queensland subspecies are very closely related, but that there is quite a large separation from subspecies flavigaster. Subspecies tormenti... Wikipedia →