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Flame Bowerbird - BirdForum Opus

Alternative names: Golden Regent Bowerbird; Yellow-throated Golden Bird (ardens); New Guinea Golden Bowerbird; Golden Regentbird

Male
Photo © by Mark Harper
Boystown Road, Kiunga, Papua New Guinea, August 2008
Sericulus ardens

Identification

24.5 - 25.5 cm. A striking Bowerbird.

Male

  • Glossy brilliant deep orange head, nape, mantle and side of neck
  • Elongate filamental deep orange upper neck plumage and mantle
  • Deep yellow rump, uppertail-coverts, upperwing and underparts
  • Black spots above carpal joint, brownish-black edges of alula feathers, brownish-black primaries
  • Dark blackish-brown tail
  • Pale lemon-yellow eye
  • Pale bluish-grey bill

Female

  • Olive-brown above
  • Orange-yellow below
  • Washed olive-brown chin, throat and upper breast
  • Dark brown eye

Juveniles are undescribed, immatures are similar to females.

Distribution

Endemic to Southern New Guinea(Toricelli and Prince Alexander mountains).
Population size little-known.

Taxonomy

Masked Bowerbird has been split from Flame Bowerbird. May form a superspecies with Fire-maned Bowerbird and Regent Bowerbird.

Subspecies

This is a monotypic species[1].

Habitat

Lowland and montane rainforest and adjacent second growth. Occurs from lowlands up to 1400m, aureus mainly at 850 - 1400m.

Behaviour

Diet

Diet little known, certainly includes fruits and insects. Forages singly or in small groups, also with other fruit-eating species like Vogelkop Bowerbird.

Breeding

Display season May to July. A polygynous species. The male builds and attends a bower to attract females. They build a nest alone and also breed alone.
The bower is a so-called avenue bower built with sticks. It's about 23cm long, 16cm wide and 19cm high. It's decorated with purple, blue and brown fruits, flowers, snail-shells and leaves. The male performs a dance to attract the female to the bower.
No informations about nest, clutch size, incubation or similar.

Movements

Presumly a resident species.

References

  1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, S. M. Billerman, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2019. The eBird/Clements Checklist of Birds of the World: v2019. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
  2. Gill F, D Donsker & P Rasmussen (Eds). 2021. IOC World Bird List (v11.1). doi : 10.14344/IOC.ML.11.1. http://www.worldbirdnames.org/#Del Hoyo, J, A Elliott, and D Christie, eds. 2009. Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 14: Bush-shrikes to Old World Sparrows. Barcelona: Lynx Edicions. ISBN 978-8496553507
  3. Frith, C. and D. Frith (2020). Flame Bowerbird (Sericulus ardens), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.flabow2.01
  4. Avibase

Recommended Citation

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