Centropus menbeki
Adult huge, glossy black, with long tail, iris red, bill whitish with black base, legs black. Juvenile dull, blackish, with narrow rufous bars at base of tail, iris tan or orange. Race menbeki darker above, smaller; aruensis dark purplish black above; jobiensis less purplish, more greenish. Voice: Low. Pitched, resonant booming boots in staccato; single note “oodle”, also pairs of “hoo hoo”, and descending series of “Uh- oo- oo- oo- oo- oo- oh”; a grunt followed by a dry rattle. Calls at night.
Not Threatened.
Adult huge, glossy black, with long tail, iris red, bill whitish with black base, legs black. Juvenile dull, blackish, with narrow rufous bars at base of tail, iris tan or orange. Race menbeki darker above, smaller; aruensis dark purplish black above; jobiensis less purplish, more greenish. Voice: Low. Pitched, resonant booming boots in staccato; single note “oodle”, also pairs of “hoo hoo”, and descending series of “Uh- oo- oo- oo- oo- oo- oh”; a grunt followed by a dry rattle. Calls at night.
60- 67 cm; race jobiensis male 480 g and female 553 g, race menbeki male 293 g.
Taxonomy:
- Centropus Menbeki Garnot, 1828, New Guinea = Manokwari. Forms a superspecies with C. goliath and C. violaceus. Original spelling is menbeki, although listed by Lesson and Garnot in 1829 as “menebiki”, based on a local Papuan word. Three subspecies recognized. (source: Handbook of the Birds of World)
Subspecies and Distribution:
- * menbeki Garnot, 1828 - New Guinea, W Papuan islands and Numfor I. * jobiensis Stresemann & Paludan, 1932 - Yapen I. * aruensis (Salvadori, 1878) - Aru Is.
Forest, forest edge, srub and lower middle storyes. Sea level to 800 m.
Small vertebrates (snakes, frogs, small birds), arthropods, large insects (grasshoppers, cicadas, caterpillars). Feeds on ground, where movements clumsy, and in vines; hops up tree trunks, switching tail from side to side.
Oviduct egg in APR; recently fledged young Jan, Oct. Nest a large mass of leaves, in pandanus, in wet season. Oviduct egg white; 37 x 30 mm.