The Arafura fantail ( Rhipidura dryas), sometimes known as the wood fantail, inhabits the Lesser Sunda Islands, the northern coast of Australia from the Kimberley to the western side of the Cape York Peninsula, including subcoastally in the Top End of the Northern Territory, and southern New Guinea. It is similar to the rufous fantail, from which it has been split taxonomically but, apart from minor overlap in the eastern Moluccas, their geographic ranges are discrete. It is generally duller than the rufous fantail with the rufous colouration more restricted.Richard Schodde; & Mason, I.J. (1999). The Directory of Australian Birds: Passerines. CSIRO Publishing: Melbourne. Christidis, Les; & Boles, Walter E. (2008). Systematics and taxonomy of Australian birds. CSIRO Publishing: Melbourne.
It forms a superspecies with R. rufifrons and R. semirubra, and all three are often considered conspecific. All are part of a larger species group that also includes R. teysmanni, R. superflua, R. dedemi, R. opistherythra, R. lepida, R. rufidorsa, R. dahli, R. matthiae and R. malaitae.
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