The New Britain thicketbird or Bismarck thicketbird (''Cincloramphus grosvenori'') is a

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

. It used to be placed in the "

Old World warbler The Old World warblers are a large group of birds formerly grouped together in the bird family Sylviidae. They are not closely related to the New World warblers. The family held over 400 species in over 70 genera, and were the source of much taxo ...

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 ...

Sylviidae Sylviidae is a family of passerine birds that includes the typical warblers ''Sylvia'', and closely related genus '' Curruca'', formerly included in ''Sylvia''. They are found in Eurasia and Africa, with the greatest diversity in the Mediterrane ...

, but it does not seem to be a close relative of the

typical warbler The typical warblers are small birds belonging to the genus ''Sylvia'' in the "Old World warbler" (or sylviid warbler) family Sylviidae.Del Hoyo, J.; Elliot, A., & Christie, D. (editors). (2006). ''Handbook of the Birds of the World''. Volume 1 ...

s; probably it belongs in the grass warbler family

Locustellidae Locustellidae is a recently recognised family of small insectivorous songbirds (" warblers"), formerly placed in the Old World warbler " wastebin" family. It contains the grasshopper warblers, grassbirds, and the '' Bradypterus'' " bush war ...

. It is found only in the rarely visited highlands of the island of

New Britain New Britain () is the largest island in the Bismarck Archipelago, part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. It is separated from New Guinea by a northwest corner of the Solomon Sea (or with an island hop of Umboi Island, Umboi the Dampie ...

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

. This little-known species was for long classified as a

data deficient A data deficient (DD) species is one which has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as offering insufficient information for a proper assessment of conservation status to be made. This does not necessaril ...

species by the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

, due to the general lack of reliable data on its distribution and numbers. While there have been no records since its discovery in 1959, recent evidence suggests the

habitat destruction Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss or habitat reduction) occurs when a natural habitat is no longer able to support its native species. The organisms once living there have either moved elsewhere, or are dead, leading to a decrease ...

in the

Bismarck Archipelago The Bismarck Archipelago (, ) is a group of islands off the northeastern coast of New Guinea in the western Pacific Ocean and is part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. Its area is about . History The first inhabitants of the archipela ...

presents a greater risk than previously believed, leading to the Bismarck thicketbird being listed as a

Vulnerable species A vulnerable species is a species which has been Conservation status, categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being threatened species, threatened with extinction unless the circumstances that are threatened species, ...

in the 2008 red list.BLI (2008) It used to be considered conspecific with the

Santo thicketbird The Santo thicketbird (''Cincloramphus whitneyi'') is a bird species. It used to be placed in the "Old World warbler" family (biology), family Sylviidae, but it does not seem to be a close relative of the typical warblers; it belongs in the gras ...

and the

Bougainville thicketbird The Bougainville thicketbird (''Cincloramphus llaneae'') is a bird species. It had been placed in the "Old World warbler" family Sylviidae, but it does not seem to be a close relative of the typical warblers; probably it belongs in the grass warb ...

Footnotes

References

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding i ...

(BLI) (2008)
2008 IUCN Redlist status changes
Retrieved 2008-MAY-23.

External links

New Britain thicketbird Birds of New Britain New Britain thicketbird Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN Endemic birds of Papua New Guinea {{Locustellidae-stub