Sulawesi Fantail

The Sulawesi fantail is a small forest passerine about 15–16 cm long, recognised by the broad tail it repeatedly fans and flicks while moving through vegetation. General descriptions give it a dark grey to blackish face and throat, rich rufous or chestnut back and paler underparts, although colour varies among subspecies. It was formerly grouped with island relatives under the name rusty-bellied fantail (Birds of the World taxonomy page; general identification profile).

The species is a sedentary insect-eater of dense lowland and montane forest. Three subspecies divide Sulawesi geographically: teysmanni in the southwestern mountains, toradja in central and southeastern mountains, and coomansi in northern mountains. The International Ornithologists’ Union recognised coomansi in 2022. Field work on Gunung Tumpu recorded toradja around 1,500–2,100 m. The sources opened supplied no reliable nest, clutch or incubation information (Wikipedia and Avibase taxonomy; Oiseaux.net ecology; Treubia field survey).