Orange chat
| Orange chat | |
|---|---|
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Meliphagidae |
| Genus: | Epthianura |
| Species: | E. aurifrons |
| Binomial name | |
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Epthianura aurifrons Gould, 1838 |
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The orange chat (Epthianura aurifrons) is a species of bird in the family Meliphagidae. It is endemic to Australia.
The orange chat (Epthianura aurifrons) is endemic to Australia. Orange chats are usually 10–12 cm in length, 10-12 grams in weight and have an average wingspan of 19 cm. The orange chat is a small ground songbird with relatively long, broad and rounded wings and a short square ended tail. The orange chat is potbellied in shape with long thin legs, a short slender straight bill and a brush-tipped tongue. Male feathers are a deep, warm, cadmium yellow with orange overtone, the colour is strongest on the crown and breast. Males' lores and throat are black, their rump is a golden orange with a tail finely tipped with white. Female chats are mottled in grey brown with underparts being a softer fawny yellow. Orange chats do not have any seasonal differences in plumage.
Bird species similar to and often confused with the orange chat are the yellow chat and the crimson chat; these birds are similar in size and shape. Orange chats have straighter and on average shorter bills. The adult male chat is rarely mistaken for another with its vivid orange colouration and black throat-patch. The male yellow chat is coloured almost as brightly as the orange chat but without such warm orange overtone, rather an intense lemon yellow. The grey-brown mottled females and immature plumage have yellow uppertail-coverts and a yellow underbody distinguishing them from the crimson chat but is still rather similar to the yellow chat.
Orange-breasted, orange-fronted, golden-fronted or bush chat; orange-fronted nun or tang, bush or saltbush canary.
Orange chats inhabit Australia. The orange chat is strongly nomadic in arid and semi-arid zones of Australia. They are found mainly within the interior with some sightings in the northern tropics and very occasionally reaching coasts in South and Western Australia. The orange chat mostly occurs in dry, low lying, saline environments that are rarely flooded such as sparsely vegetated gibber plains, salt pans, salt lakes or claypans. Mainly inhabiting low, treeless chenopod shrublands dominated by saltbush, bluebush or samphire, with either open or continuous shrub cover. Sometimes recorded in other open or shrubby habitats, often near wetlands: low mulga, low buloke woodland; open acacia scrubland; dongas vegetated with tall shrubs or small trees including mulga, dead finish, belah or sugarwood; grassland; or sedgeland. The orange chat has occasionally been recorded in mallee woodlands and on farmlands, including areas over-run by scotch thistle.
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Wikipedia