Colours
Distinguishing features
Adults distinctively marked: Black cap or hood from bill, extending below eyes, merging at nape to grey-brown of back. White chin and throat. Broad black band on breast joining nape and also extending to flanks as chestnut stripe. Belly and vent white. Back and mantle grey-brown, mainly black upperwing with white trailing edge. Upper leg, including tarsal joint or “knee”, red. Bill red with dark tip. (Wikipedia)
Size
- From 17 cm to 20 cm (Length of specimen)
Wingspan
- From 33 cm to 38 cm
Synonyms
Distribution
©Atlas of Living Australia: Australian distribution
Distribution and habitat preferences
It is native to mainland Australia, Papua New Guinea, and Indonesia, and has occurred as a vagrant in Tasmania, Palau and New Zealand.
It is mainly found on the margins of shallow ephemeral and permanent freshwater wetlands, occasionally in saline wetlands, but rarely in tidal wetlands. (Wikipedia)
Diet
It mainly feeds on arthropods, molluscs, annelids and seeds.
Web resources
References
- Simpson, K., N. Day and P. Trusler (2004). Field Guide to Birds of Australia: 7th Edition Penguin Group (Australia), Camberwell, Victoria.