Gray Fantail

Rhipidura albiscapa

The grey fantail is a small insectivorous bird. There is no sexual dimorphism. It is a common fantail found in Australia, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and New Caledonia. The species is considered by many to be conspecific with the New Zealand fantail ; however, differences in its calls lead some authorities to treat it as a separate species. The studies of grey fantail in 1999 by Richard Schodde and Ian Mason recommended that Tasmanian grey fantail was formally classified as R. albiscapa and New Zealand fantails populations as R. fuliginosa Source

Where it is now

In the last 8 weeks this bird was recorded 633,381 times across 15 areas (each area is a 5 degree square).

See the Gray Fantail on the live map

Movement and weather

Each season it is first heard regularly where daytime highs are around 25°C (typically 22 to 31°C, from 7 areas).

Over the weeks it was present in the past year, its centre in Oceania ranged from 38°S in March to 27°S in August, about 1,200 km apart.

Arrival dates

The week it was first heard regularly in each region, after at least six weeks away. Dates differ from south to north, so a region has a range.

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Figures are effort corrected and come from automatic sound identification, which makes mistakes. How this is measured and how it compares with human observers.