The orange-footed scrubfowl (''Megapodius reinwardt''), also known as orange-footed megapode or just scrubfowl, is a small

megapode The megapodes, also known as incubator birds or mound-builders, are stocky, medium-large, chicken-like birds with small heads and large feet in the family Megapodiidae. Their name literally means "large foot" and is a reference to the heavy leg ...

of the family Megapodiidae native to many islands in the

Lesser Sunda Islands The Lesser Sunda Islands (, , ), now known as Nusa Tenggara Islands (, or "Southeast Islands"), are an archipelago in the Indonesian archipelago. Most of the Lesser Sunda Islands are located within the Wallacea region, except for the Bali pro ...

as well as southern

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

and northern

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 ...

Description

It is a terrestrial bird the size of a domestic chicken and dark-coloured with strong orange legs and a pointed crest at the back of the head. It utilises a range of forest and scrub habitats and has colonised many small islands throughout its range. It is prolific in suburban Darwin gardens, where people refer to it as a bush chook, bush chicken, bush turkey, or most commonly, the bush boiby

Conservation

In general, populations seem to be stable and the conservation status of the species is considered to be 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 ...

Diet

The orange-footed scrubfowl feeds on seeds, fallen fruit and terrestrial invertebrates.

Breeding

As with other megapodes, it nests in large mounds of sand,

leaf litter Plant litter (also leaf litter, tree litter, soil litter, litterfall, or duff) is dead plant material (such as leaves, bark, needles, twigs, and cladodes) that has fallen to the ground. This detritus or dead organic material and its constituen ...

and other debris where the heat generated by the decomposition of organic material serves to incubate the eggs. Construction and maintenance of the mounds, which may reach in height and in diameter, takes place throughout the year.

Taxonomy

There are 5 subspecies. Some of the subspecies may be treated as full species, such as the

Tanimbar scrubfowl The Tanimbar megapode or Tanimbar scrubfowl (''Megapodius tenimberensis'') is a small megapode endemic to the Tanimbar Islands of Indonesia. It is sometimes considered to be a subspecies of the orange-footed scrubfowl, ''Megapodius reinwardt''. ...

(''Megapodius tenimberensis''), while other subspecies may be considered subspecies of other species (e.g., ''M. r. buruensis'' is sometimes considered a subspecies of the

dusky megapode The dusky megapode (''Megapodius freycinet''), also known as dusky scrubfowl or common megapode, is a medium-sized, approximately 41 cm (16 in) long, blackish bird with a short pointed crest, bare red facial skin, dark legs, brown irises, and a ...

In Aboriginal language and culture

The

Kunwinjku people The Kunwinjku (formerly written Gunwinggu) people are an Australian Aboriginal people, one of several groups within the Bininj people, who live around West Arnhem Land to the east of Darwin, Northern Territory. Kunwinjku people generally refer ...

of west Arnhem Land know this bird as kurrukurldanj. The people of Flores Islands in Indonesia named this bird a
Wodon

References

* Jones, Darryl N.; Dekker, Rene W.R.J.; & Roselaar, Cees S. (1995). ''The Megapodes''. Oxford University Press: Oxford. * Marchant, S.; & Higgins, P.J. (Eds). (1993). ''

Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds The ''Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds'', known as ''HANZAB'', is the pre-eminent scientific reference on birds in the region, which includes Australia, New Zealand, Antarctica, and the surrounding ocean and subantarctic ...

. Volume 2: Raptors to Lapwings''. Oxford University Press: Melbourne.

External links

BirdLife Species Factsheet
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1047217

orange-footed scrubfowl The orange-footed scrubfowl (''Megapodius reinwardt''), also known as orange-footed megapode or just scrubfowl, is a small megapode of the family Megapodiidae native to many islands in the Lesser Sunda Islands as well as southern New Guinea and n ...

Birds of the Lesser Sunda Islands Birds of southern New Guinea Birds of the Northern Territory Birds of Queensland