The large-billed scrubwren (''Sericornis magnirostra'') is a passerine bird in the family

Acanthizidae Acanthizidae—sometimes called Australian warblers—are a family of passerine birds which includes gerygones, thornbills '' Acanthiza'', and scrubwrens '' Sericornis''. The family Acanthizidae consists of small to medium passerine birds, with ...

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to eastern

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. It is found in denser undergrowth in

temperate forest A temperate forest is a forest found between the tropical and boreal regions, located in the temperate zone. It is the second largest terrestrial biome, covering 25% of the world's forest area, only behind the boreal forest, which covers about 3 ...

subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests (TSMF), also known as tropical moist forest, is a subtropical and tropical forest habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). Description TSMF is generally found in large ...

, and subtropical or tropical moist

montane forest Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures lapse rate, fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is ...

Taxonomy

The large-billed scrubwren was described by ornithologist

John Gould John Gould (; 14 September 1804 – 3 February 1881) was an English ornithologist who published monographs on birds, illustrated by plates produced by his wife, Elizabeth Gould (illustrator), Elizabeth Gould, and several other artists, includ ...

in 1838. The generic name ''Sericornis'' derives from

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

''serikos'' 'silk' and ''ornis'' 'bird'. The

specific epithet In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...

derives from Latin ''magnus'' 'great' and ''rostrum'' 'bill'. It was placed in the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Pardalotidae in the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy, but this has met with opposition and indeed is now known to be wrong. Instead, the large-billed scrubwren belongs to the independent family

.Gill, F. and D. Donsker, eds. (2020). ''IOC World Bird List (v 10.1)''. Doi 10.14344/IOC.ML.10.1. http://www.worldbirdnames.org/ There are three recognised subspecies: ''Sericornis magnirostra magnirostra'', ''S. m. viridior'', and ''S. m. howei''.Gregory, P. (2020). "Large-billed Scrubwren (Sericornis magnirostra), 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.labscr2.01

Description

The large-billed scrubwren is in length and weighs .Pizzey, G. and Doyle, R. (1980) ''A Field Guide to the Birds of Australia''. Collins Publishers, Sydney. It has a dark reddish-brown eye in a pale buff face, with a longish, black bill inclined slightly upwards. The upperparts are light grey-brown with an olive tint, the throat is a pale buffy-white, the belly greyish, and the rump and tail light rufous-brown.

Distribution and habitat

The large-billed scrubwren is found from near

Cooktown Cooktown is a coastal town and locality in the Shire of Cook, Queensland, Australia. Cooktown is at the mouth of the Endeavour River, on Cape York Peninsula in Far North Queensland where James Cook beached his ship, the '' Endeavour'', for ...

in northern Queensland to Kinglake and the

Dandenong Ranges The Dandenong Ranges (commonly just the Dandenongs) are a set of low mountain ranges in Victoria, Australia, approximately east of the state capital Melbourne. A minor branch of the Great Dividing Range, the Dandenongs consist mostly of rol ...

, near Melbourne, Victoria. The distribution of the 3 subspecies corresponds to 3 discontinuous areas within its overall range: the nominate subspecies ''Sericornis magnirostra magnirostra'' is found from the Clarke Range, inland of Mackay, Queensland to

East Gippsland East Gippsland is the eastern region of Gippsland, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia covering (14%) of Victoria (Australia), Victoria. It has a population of 80,114. Australian Bureau of Statistics2006 Census Community Profile Series: Ea ...

in Victoria; ''S. m. viridior'' is found in northeast Queensland from Mt Amos, south of Cooktown, to the

Paluma Range National Park Paluma Range is a national park located between Ingham and Townsville, in north Queensland, Australia. The park is 1188 km north of Brisbane. Geography The park contains the Jourama Falls, Crystal Creek and Lake Paluma. Ecology Most of ...

, near Townsville; and ''S. m. howei'' is found in

West Gippsland West Gippsland is a region of Gippsland in Victoria, Australia. It covers an area of around the eastern shores of the Western Port Bay, extending from San Remo in the west to the Strzelecki Ranges in the east, up to Mount Howitt in the north. ...

and the Strzelecki Ranges of southern Victoria. Its preferred habitat is rainforest in the tropics and

wet sclerophyll Sclerophyll is a type of vegetation that is adapted to long periods of dryness and heat. The plants feature hard leaves, short Internode (botany), internodes (the distance between leaves along the stem) and leaf orientation which is parallel or ...

forest in temperate areas. It is sedentary and more common in the north of its range.

Behaviour

Breeding

The large-billed scrubwren breeds from July to January, mainly in November and December.Morcombe, Michael (2012) ''Field Guide to Australian Birds''. Pascal Press, Glebe, NSW. Revised edition. It constructs a rough, domed of bark, grass and moss, lined with feathers and set in creepers, tree-ferns or palm-fronds. It often occupies the abandoned nest of other species, notably the yellow-throated scrubwren (''Neosericornis citreogularis''). A clutch of 3 or 4 s, measuring , is laid. The eggs are dull white to pale purplish-brown in appearance with fine spots at the large end. The incubation period is unknown and the nestling period is about 13 days. The nests are parasitised by the

fan-tailed cuckoo The fan-tailed cuckoo (''Cacomantis flabelliformis'') is a species of cuckoo in the family Cuculidae. It is found in Australia, Fiji, New Caledonia, New Zealand, New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu. Taxonomy Six subspecies have been recogni ...

(''Cacomantis flabelliformis'') and the chestnut-breasted cuckoo (''C. castaneiventris'').

Feeding

The large-billed scrubwren forages in the low to middle levels of the forest, often in small flocks. It is , gleaning various

arthropods Arthropods ( ) are invertebrates in the phylum Arthropoda. They possess an arthropod exoskeleton, exoskeleton with a cuticle made of chitin, often Mineralization (biology), mineralised with calcium carbonate, a body with differentiated (Metam ...

, including spiders, ants, wasps, beetles, and

lepidoptera Lepidoptera ( ) or lepidopterans is an order (biology), order of winged insects which includes butterflies and moths. About 180,000 species of the Lepidoptera have been described, representing 10% of the total described species of living organ ...

n larvae, from the bark of tree-trunks and branches, and amongst debris suspended in vines and epiphytes.

Vocalization

The large-billed scrubwren is mostly silent, but occasionally makes a penetrating territorial call "s-cheer s-cheer", a sharp, loud "chwip-chwip" or a chattering "sip-sip" while feeding.

Conservation status

The large-billed scrubwren has a wide distribution and a stable population, and is classified as of

least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been evaluated and categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as not being a focus of wildlife conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wil ...

on the

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is an inventory of the global conservation status and extinction risk of biological ...

References

External links

Photos, audio and video of large-billed scrubwren
in

Cornell Lab of Ornithology The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is a member-supported unit of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, which studies birds and other wildlife. It is housed in the Imogene Powers Johnson Center for Birds and Biodiversity in Sapsucker Woods Sanctuar ...

's Macaulay Library
Recordings of large-billed scrubwren
in Graeme Chapman's sound library
Recordings of large-billed scrubwren
in Xeno-canto sound archive {{Taxonbar, from=Q2223735 large-billed scrubwren Birds of New South Wales Birds of Queensland Birds of Victoria (state) Endemic birds of Australia large-billed scrubwren Taxonomy articles created by Polbot