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Large songbird, tawny with streaking above, paler below, with rich brown crown and long, graduated tail.
At a glance
Sounds
Range map
Aggregated occurance data is sourced from 14 different actively-updating datasets including eBird Australia, iNaturalist Australia, BirdLife Australia, and multiple state-based bird surveys through Atlas of Living Australia.
Species notes
It is streaked above and has a distinctive rich brown cap. Its underside is paler and it has a long graduated tail. The term "grassbird" was used by Gould during the mid 19th century to signify a strong correlation to long grass habitats. The tawny grassbird has also been known as tawny sphenoeacus, grassbird, tawny or rufous-capped marshbird, rufous-capped grass-warbler and rufous-capped grassbird.
In similar grassland and reedbed habitats, smaller Golden-headed Cisticola has much shorter tail, Little Grassbird is duller in plumage, and Australian Reed-Warbler has plain, unstreaked plumage. Calls often, with loud, grumpy churring calls and a longer call that starts “tick-tick-tick-tick” and ends with an explosive descending trill.
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