The Tasmanian scrubwren or brown scrubwren (''Sericornis humilis'') 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), ...

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 the

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 ...

s of

Tasmania Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...

and nearby King Island. It lives in the understory of rainforest, woodland, dry forest, swamps and coastal scrublands.

Taxonomy

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, this has met with opposition and indeed is now no longer accepted; they instead are currently placed in the independent 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 ...

. It is alternately considered a

subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...

of the smaller

white-browed scrubwren The white-browed scrubwren (''Sericornis frontalis'') is a passerine bird found on the New England Tablelands and coastal areas of Australia. Placed in the family Pardalotidae in the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy, this has met with opposition and in ...

, and further research is needed to understand the relationships between the two species.

Subspecies

There are two subspecies of Tasmanian scrubwren: on Observation.org * ''S. h. humilis'' – nominate subspecies; Tasmania * ''S. h. tregellasi'' – King Island

References

Sericornis Endemic birds of Tasmania Birds described in 1838 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Acanthizidae-stub