Rufous Fantail

At Uralla Reserve in Trafalgar recently, the bush was dry as a bone and the bird life exceptionally quiet, except … a flash of orange-brown in the understory could only be the beautiful Rufous Fantail.

The Rufous Fantail is a spring-summer migrant in this district. The adults here now, after breeding, will shortly head back north to as far as Cape York and perhaps even New Guinea. Apparently, the juveniles follow some weeks later, a migratory pattern that amazes me.

Research indicates that the Rufous Fantail exhibits strong fidelity to its breeding territory, with ringed individuals returning consistently to the same areas. When they are on the move, it is not unusual to see a bird in a home garden or urban parkland. Migratory flights are taken early morning from just before sunrise and late afternoons to just aftersunset.

Rufous Fantails like to inhabit rainforests and wetter gullies in montane forests and woodlands. They feed on insects on the ground and in the understory and midstory, taken mostly on the wing. They are constantly on the move.

Rhipidura rufifrons: rhipis = fan, oura = tail, rufus = red, frons = forehead (strangely named for its rufous forehead and not the brilliant tail?)