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Pale-billed Scrubwren - BirdForum Opus

Alternative name: Pale-billed Sericornis

Sericornis spilodera

Identification

10 - 12.5 cm. A medium-sized scrubwren.

  • Distinctive pale bill
  • Blackish streaking on throat (in most subspecies)
  • Blackish crown
  • Olive upperparts with brown upperwing and tail
  • Whitish chin and throat with blackish streaks
  • Yellowish-white underparts, breast with some grey streaks and with dingy pale olive flanks
  • guttatus with greenish crown
  • wuroi like guttatus but paler and with greener upperparts
  • granti with browner crown and ear-coverts and reduced throat spotting
  • ferrugineus with rufous forehead, greyish-rufous ear-coverts, reduced grey spotting on throat and very pale underparts
  • aruensis with rufous-olive crown, paler and buffy forehead and ear-coverts, no black streaks on throat and bright greenish-olive back

Sexes similar. Immature with brownish crown and without dark streaks on underparts.

Distribution

Found on New Guinea and some adjacent islands.
Uncommon but widespread. An unobtrusive species, occuring in rather low density.

Taxonomy

Seven subspecies recognized:

  • S. s. spilodera in northwest New Guinea (east to Astrolabe Bay) and Yapen Island
  • S. s. granti in western New Guinea (Snow Mountains)
  • S. s. wuroi in southern New Guinea (Trans-Fly lowlands)
  • S. s. guttatus in the mountains of southeast New Guinea
  • S. s. ferrugineus on Waigeo Island (New Guinea)
  • S. s. aruensis on Aru Islands (New Guinea)
  • S. s. batantae on Batanta Island (New Guinea)

Habitat

Mostly in hill forest from 200 to 1200 m. Also in lowland forest in Trans-Fly lowlands and northern New Guinea. Replaced at higher eleveations by Large Scrubwren. Overlaps with Grey-green Scrubwren and with Tropical Scrubwren in parts of its range.

Behaviour

Diet

Not well known. Feeds mostly on insects.
Forages low in understorey up to middle level. Flicks often with its tail and gleans prey actively from leaves, twigs and branches. Sometimes in mixed-species flocks together with Yellow-bellied Gerygone, Chestnut-bellied Fantail, Spot-winged Monarch, Frilled Monarch, Wallace's Fairywren and Hooded Pitohui.

Breeding

Breeding probably in dry season. No other information.

Movements

This is a sedentary species.

References

  1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2014. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: Version 6.9., with updates to August 2014. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
  2. Gill, F and D Donsker (Eds). 2015. IOC World Bird Names (version 5.2). Available at http://www.worldbirdnames.org/.
  3. Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved June 2015)

Recommended Citation

External Links

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