General description:
Male distinguished from other mountain forest Rallina species by unpatterned black or dark brown lower mantle, back and UpW. R. tricolor, of moist forest at low altitudes.
Conservation status:
Not Threatened.
Diagnostic description:
Male distinguished from other mountain forest Rallina species by unpatterned black or dark brown lower mantle, back and UpW. R. tricolor, of moist forest at low altitudes.
Behaviour:
Size:
20-25 cm, male 78-106 g, female 65-96 g. One subadult 81 g.
Phylogeny:
Taxonomy:
- Rallicula forbesi Sharpe, 1887, Owen Stanley Range, New Guinea. Sometimes retained in Rallicula. Forms superspecies with R. leucospila and R. mayri. Population occurring in Foja Mts, NC New Guinea, may be referable to present species or to new, as yet undescribed, form. Four subspecies recognized. (source: Handbook of the Birds of World)
Distribution:
Subspecies and Distribution:
- * steini (Rothschild, 1934) - C New Guinea, from Weyland Mts E to Bismarck Mts. * parva Pratt, 1982 - NE New Guinea, on Mt Mengam (Adelbert Range). * dryas (Mayr, 1931) - NE New Guinea, on Huon Peninsula. * forbesi (Sharpe, 1887) - SE New Guinea, from Herzog Mts to Owen Stanley Mts.
Habitat:
Montane forest.
Trophic strategy:
Invertebrates, small vertebrates, and seeds.
Reproduction:
Roosting nest a football-sized domed structure of leaf skeletons and moss on the ground. One breeding nest was a platform in a tree. Eggs probably four to five, white
Taxonomic name: