Crateroscelis nigrorufa
A small, dark, long-legged terrestrial acanthizid, Nominate race is blackish-brown or black above, including upperwing and rail; chin, throat and underparts quite bright rufous to reddish-chestnut, becoming duller on lower abdomen; iris red-brown; bill brownish-grey; legs brownish-black. Differs from rather similar C. murina in being much darker above, uniformly rufous below. Sexes alike. Juvenile undescribed; suspected juvenile at Myola (Owen Stanley Range) was duller brown above, with bright reddy-chestnut throat, dull brownish underparts. Race blissi differs from nominate in having abdomen black with olive wash.
Not Threatened
A small, dark, long-legged terrestrial acanthizid, Nominate race is blackish-brown or black above, including upperwing and rail; chin, throat and underparts quite bright rufous to reddish-chestnut, becoming duller on lower abdomen; iris red-brown; bill brownish-grey; legs brownish-black. Differs from rather similar C. murina in being much darker above, uniformly rufous below. Sexes alike. Juvenile undescribed; suspected juvenile at Myola (Owen Stanley Range) was duller brown above, with bright reddy-chestnut throat, dull brownish underparts. Race blissi differs from nominate in having abdomen black with olive wash.
12 – 13 cm
Taxonomy: Sericornis nigrorufa Salvadori, 1894, Moroka, New Guinea. Two subspecies recognized. (source: Handbook of the Birds of World)
Subspecies and Distribution:
- * blissi Stresemann & Paludan, 1934 - W New Guinea (Weyland Mts and N slope of Snow Mts). * nigrorufa (Salvadori, 1894) - E & SE New Guinea discontinuously from upper R Sepik (Thurnwald Range), Mt Giluwe, Tari Gap and Wahgi area E to Huon Peninsula (Saruwaged Mts), Wharton Range and Owen Stanley Mts.
Mountain forest at 1220 m – 2500 m, in variable narrow altitudinal band (c. 50-370 m wide) between C. murina of lower levels and C. robusta. Narrow zone of overlap with both congeners in a few areas (as at 1250 m at Efogi, in Central Province), ecological-separation mechanism unknown, presumably achieved through niche selection. Specimens from Herzog Mts taken at 1370 – 1490 m, with C. murina up to 1370 m and C. robusta down to 1520 m; in Aseki area (Morobe Province) specimens from range 1520 – 1580 m, with C. robusta down to 1520 m; at Mindik (Huon Peninsula) specimens from range 1490 – 1860 m, with C. murina up to 1580 m and C. robusta down to 1770m.
No details of diet. Forages on ground and in shrub layer, ascending higher into shrubs than do congeners. Gleans from leaves and stems; bounds rapidly from perch to perch while making scolding calls.
Poorly known; data from only two nests. One nest collected in Dec, a rounded domed structure with side entrance near the top, made of a springy mass of fine dark rootlets (possibly tree-ferns) with some minute moss fragments and a few twigs and feathers, inner cup of lengths of grass or bamboo-like leaves, lined with similar but finer material and a few downy feathers, was attached to bush branch c. 46 cm above ground. Clutch 2 eggs, while and almost unmarked or with fine light purple-grey markings at larger end (and more sparsely elsewhere). No further information available.