Animalia Life

Scenopoeetes dentirostris
TAXONOMY
Scenopoeetes dentirostris Ramsay, 1876, Bellenden Ker Range, Queensland, Australia.
OTHER COMMON NAMES
English: Stagemaker, tooth-billed catbird, leaf turner; French: Jardinier а bec dentй; German: Zahnlaubenvogel; Spanish: Capulinero de Pico Dentado.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
10.6 in (27 cm); female 0.35–0.40 lb (157–182 g), male 0.29–0.44 lb (132–199 g). Medium sized, brownish bird with a dark notched bill used to cut leaves for decorating court areas.
DISTRIBUTION
Australian wet tropics, north Queensland; from Big Tableland in the north to Seaview-Paluma Range in south and on Mount Elliot. Mostly occurs at 1,970–2,950 ft (600–900 m) altitude.
HABITAT
Upland tropical rainforests.
BEHAVIOR
Courts on average are 200 ft (61 m) apart. Court attendance is during late August through early January, peaks in October through December. Adult males exhibit advertisement vocalization, including much vocal mimicry.
FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET
Primarily herbivorous, eating mostly fruits and leaves but also some flowers and arthropods in the canopy; predominantly folivorous in winter. Fruits and insects, mainly beetles, are fed to nestlings.
REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY
Polygynous, with promiscuous males and exclusively female nest attendance. Breeding occurs September through January; egg laying peaks in November and December. Typically nests in suspended vine tangles 26–88 ft (8–27 m) above ground. Nests are made of a sparse stick foundation, sometimes with orchid stems, and an egg-cup lining of fine twigs. Nest diminutive and sparse. Lays one or two eggs. Incubation and nestling periods are unknown.
CONSERVATION STATUS
Not threatened. Common throughout remaining, but protected,
HABITAT
.
SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS
None known.

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