The Grey Fantail, Rhipidura fuliginosa, list is all but the deserts of Australia and also New Zealand where it is called the Pīwakawaka or Tīwakawaka. It is also found in New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and New Caledonia. It is fairly common throughout these areas.
It gets its name from its color and the habit of flicking up its tail in a fan when it is hunting. There may be some advantage in getting insects to move when it does this. Then it can see them and catch them.
Classification:
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Rhipiduridae
Genus: Rhipidura
Species: R. fuliginosa
Photos:
Grey Fantail in a golden environment
"This Grey Fantail was busy flitting around in a boring and very dead bush catching food. It wasn’t until I’d been there a while that I realised the boring bush looked quite ‘artistic’ when framed out, so I took a few more. Here s/he is captured in the moment of waving the fan. Then I discovered s/he wasn’t feeding just for itself. Next to the dead bush was a thicket within which I could eventually see him/her feeding two chicks. They were tough to see so deep inside, but I did manage to get a couple of shots of them looking as most babies do - cute. Posted a bit later on my stream."
Photo courtesy of aaardvaark
The babies are definitedly worth a look. Too cute! If you don’t want to search throught his photostream to find them, you can see them here.
Grey Fantail
Photo courtesy of MaxinAus
