Explore Taxonomy
Order
Passeriformes
Family
Ptilonorhynchidae
Genus
Amblyornis
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Golden-fronted Bowerbird Amblyornis flavifrons Scientific name definitions

Clifford Frith and Dawn Frith
Version: 1.0 — Published March 4, 2020
Text last updated December 4, 2018

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Originally Appeared in

HBW Alive

Field Identification

24 cm. Male has forecrown and conspicuously extensive broad erectile and laterally spreadable crest from beak to mantle brilliant glossy deep yellow, a few top feathers with brown tips; mantle and back dark ­rufous-brown, upperwing and uppertail brown-olive; side of face, lores, chin, throat and upper chest similar to back, but paler and less reddish; breast and abdomen, undertail-coverts and underwing-coverts rich buff, variably washed with deep cinnamon; iris dark brown; bill blackish; legs bluish-grey. Female (no specimens) resembles male, but without crest. Juvenile undescribed; immature male probably like female; subadult male acquires orange-yellow under-feathers of crest before the more yellow superficial ones.

Systematics History

Monotypic.

Subspecies

Monotypic.

Distribution

Foja Mts, in N New Guinea.

Habitat

Montane moss forest dominated by Araucaria, southern beech (Nothofagus), Podocarpus, and Lithocarpus oaks; 940–2000 m, mainly 1100–1800 m. Traditional bower sites on ridge crests c. 0·5 km apart.

Movement

Resident.

Diet and Foraging

Fruits recorded as eaten. Frequents middle storey and lower canopy at 6–20 m, also forest floor.

Sounds and Vocal Behavior

Male at bower gives loud advertisement vocalizations, including short high nasal screeches, rasps, clucks, wheezes, croaks, crackling, whip-like sounds, and vocal mimicry of birds and human-made sounds. During courtship, a male gave weak high-pitched 2-note whistle; subsong unrecorded.

Breeding

Little known. Presumed polygynous. Non-territorial except for defence of bower sites. Male builds simple maypole bower, tower to c. 1 m high and basal circular mat c. 1 m in diameter; bower decorations include discrete piles of blue, green and yellow fruits, each on a distinct part of bower mat. During one observed display to a presumed female, an adult male held a blue fruit in bill and directed it at female as she moved about bower site; he frequently spread crest laterally, raised and lowered it vertically, and shook his head rapidly from side to side, causing crest to quiver. No other information.

Conservation Status

Conservation status on Birdlife LC Least Concern
Not globally threatened. Restricted range species: present in North Papuan Mountains EBA. Has very small global range, within which total population estimated at a few thousand at most.
Distribution of the Golden-fronted Bowerbird - Range Map
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  • Year-round
  • Migration
  • Breeding
  • Non-Breeding
Distribution of the Golden-fronted Bowerbird

eBird and Macaulay Library

Recommended Citation

Frith, C. and D. Frith (2020). Golden-fronted Bowerbird (Amblyornis flavifrons), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.gofbow1.01
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