The tooth-billed bowerbird (Scenopoeetes dentirostris), also known as the stagemaker bowerbird or tooth-billed catbird, is a medium-sized (approximately 27 centimetres (11 in) long) bowerbird. It is a stocky olive-brown bird with brown-streaked buffish white underparts, grey feet, a brown iris and a distinctive serrated bill.[2][3][4] Both sexes are similar, but the female is slightly smaller than the male. It is the only member of the genus Scenopoeetes.
| Tooth-billed bowerbird | |
|---|---|
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Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Ptilonorhynchidae |
| Genus: | Scenopoeetes Coues, 1891 |
| Species: | S. dentirostris
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| Binomial name | |
| Scenopoeetes dentirostris (Ramsay, 1876)
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The tooth-billed bowerbird is endemic to the mountain forests of northeast Queensland, Australia.[5] Its diet consists mainly of fruits and young leaves of forest trees.
The male is polygamous and builds a display-court or "stage-type bower" (hence the alternate name stagemaker), decorated with fresh green leaves laid with their pale undersides facing up.[6] The leaves are collected by the male by chewing through the leaf stalk and old leaves are removed from the display-court. The display-court consists of a cleared area containing at least one tree trunk used by the male for perching. Upon the approach of a female the male drops to the ground and displays.
A common species in its limited habitat and range, the tooth-billed bowerbird is evaluated as near threatened on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.[1]
Notes
edit- ^ a b BirdLife International (2022). "Scenopoeetes dentirostris". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2022: e.T22703627A211059844. Retrieved 27 July 2022.
- ^ "Scenopoeetes dentirostris". Australian Antarctic Data Centre. Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Community. Retrieved 28 June 2012.
- ^ Marshall, Jock (1954). Bower-birds, their displays and breeding cycles : a preliminary statement. Clarendon Press. p. 154.
- ^ Hutchinson, G. Evelyn (1970). The itinerant ivory tower; scientific and literary essays. Freeport, N.Y.: Books for Libraries Press. pp. 56–59. ISBN 083691712X.
- ^ "Tooth-billed Bowerbird (Scenopoeetes dentirostris)". BirdLife International. Retrieved 28 June 2012.
- ^ Rowland, Peter (2008). Bowerbirds. Collingwood, Vic.: CSIRO Pub. p. 22. ISBN 9780643094208.
References
edit- Pizzey, G and Knight, F. (1997). "The Field Guide to Birds of Australia". Angus and Robertson. Sydney.