Medium-sized scrubwren of montane and hill forest. Nominate race is typically greenish-olive above, browner on crown and tail, with forehead, supraloral area (paler), side of head and chin ochraceous or buffy rufous; alula and greater and median wing-coverts often with white or grey tips; underparts greyish-buff or drab olive, sometimes with lemon wash on belly; iris orange-brown reddish or brown; bill brown to blackish; feet horn-coloured. Sexes alike. Juvenile undescribed. Races vary in size and coloration: immitator similar to nominate but greener above, darker below; jobiensis like previous, but darker ochraceous cinnamon on forehead and face, darer and less olive above, paler below; pontifex has pale tips of alula and coverts indistinct (greenish-grey) or lacking, bill sometimes entirely pale; boreonesioticus sometimes has pale lower mandible.
Not Threatened
Medium-sized scrubwren of montane and hill forest. Nominate race is typically greenish-olive above, browner on crown and tail, with forehead, supraloral area (paler), side of head and chin ochraceous or buffy rufous; alula and greater and median wing-coverts often with white or grey tips; underparts greyish-buff or drab olive, sometimes with lemon wash on belly; iris orange-brown reddish or brown; bill brown to blackish; feet horn-coloured. Sexes alike. Juvenile undescribed. Races vary in size and coloration: immitator similar to nominate but greener above, darker below; jobiensis like previous, but darker ochraceous cinnamon on forehead and face, darer and less olive above, paler below; pontifex has pale tips of alula and coverts indistinct (greenish-grey) or lacking, bill sometimes entirely pale; boreonesioticus sometimes has pale lower mandible.
11.5 cm
Taxonomy: Crateroscelis virgata Reichenow, 1915, Maeanderberg, 600 m, middle Sepik River, New Guinea. Part of a species group that also includes S. nouhuysi, S. beccarii and S. magnirostra. Often treated as conspecific with S. beccarii, and a number of as yet unnamed forms from Bomberai Peninsula (Fakfak Mts, Kumawa Mts) and from E New Guinea (Mt Bosavi/L Kutubu) may belong with either species; in other areas, however, the two seem to behave as separate species, replacing each other altitudinally with little or no overlap. Present species may form link between S. beccarii of lowlands and hills and S. nouhuysi of mountains; intergrades with former known from Mt Bosavi, where specimen from 750 m a typical beccarii, and from 1520 m one specimen almost typical of present species and another intermediate between the two (most resembling beccarii); specimen from 1450 m on nearby Mt Sisa is also intermediate, but closer to present species. Genetic and vocal studies required in order to help to unravel relationships within this complex of poorly known taxa. Five subspecies currently recognized. (source: Handbook of the Birds of World)
Subspecies and Distribution:
- * imitator Mayr, 1937 - NW New Guinea (Arfak Mts). * jobiensis Stresemann & Paludan, 1932 - Yapen I, in Geelvink Bay (NW New Guinea). * boreonesioticus Diamond, 1969 - NE New Guinea (Bewani Mts, Torricelli Mts, Prince Alexander Mts). * pontifex Stresemann, 1921 - Victor Emanuel Mts, Hunstein Range, and Sepik Mts (Lordberg), in NC New Guinea. * virgatus (Reichenow, 1915) - N slopes of Sepik-Ramu drainage, in NE New Guinea.
Lower montane and hill forest and secondary growth, from 600 m (nominate race) to 1520 m (Mt Bosavi).
Food details not recorded but insectivorous, taking wide variety of arthropods. Usually seen in apparent pairs or in small family groups of 4 – 6 individuals; joins mixed feeding flocks. Forages in lower and middle levels of forest, vine tangles and thickets. Probes at bark and moss on trunks, branches and stems, and works up trunks; also gleans from foliage and twigs.
No information; compounded by difficulties in identification.