The tooth-billed bowerbird (Scenopoeetes dentirostris), also known as the stagemaker bowerbird or tooth-billed catbird, is a medium-sized (approximately 27 centimetres (11 in) long) bowerbird. It is a stocky olive-brown bird with brown-streaked buffish white underparts, grey feet, a brown iris and a distinctive serrated bill.[2][3][4] Both sexes are similar, but the female is slightly smaller than the male. It is the only member of the genus Scenopoeetes.

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The display-court

Quick Facts Conservation status, Scientific classification ...
Tooth-billed bowerbird
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Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Ptilonorhynchidae
Genus: Scenopoeetes
Coues, 1891
Species:
S. dentirostris
Binomial name
Scenopoeetes dentirostris
(Ramsay, 1876)
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The tooth-billed bowerbird is endemic to the mountain forests of northeast Queensland, Australia.[5] Its diet consists mainly of fruits and young leaves of forest trees.

The male is polygamous and builds a display-court or "stage-type bower" (hence the alternate name stagemaker), decorated with fresh green leaves laid with their pale undersides facing up.[6] The leaves are collected by the male by chewing through the leaf stalk and old leaves are removed from the display-court. The display-court consists of a cleared area containing at least one tree trunk used by the male for perching. Upon the approach of a female the male drops to the ground and displays.

A common species in its limited habitat and range, the tooth-billed bowerbird is evaluated as near threatened on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.[1]

Mimicking spangled drongo, Lake Barrine, North Queensland, Australia

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References

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