Bismarck Thicketbird Cincloramphus grosvenori Scientific name definitions

17–19 cm. A relatively long-tailed, medium-sized warbler, with dark rusty-brown upperparts and crown (darkest on lower back and rump), blackish wings, and graduated tail with pointed tips; shortest rectrix slightly more than half length of longest. Extensive black mask from bill to ear-coverts, broad rufous-buff supercilium, lacks brown scalloping on lesser wing-coverts, paler ochraceous-buff on chin, throat and central belly, with richer tawny-orange breast, dark cinnamon-brown flanks and undertail-coverts, and has outermost primary much shorter than M. llaneae (like M. whitneyi). Bill brownish black; iris dark brown; legs and feet dark smoky brown. Sexes alike, but male is apparently longer-tailed than female. Juvenile undescribed. Compared to M. rubiginosus, which also occurs on New Britain but apparently exclusively at lower elevations, differs by black mask, well-defined supercilium, rufous-orange underparts and pointed rectrices.

New Britain (Whiteman Mts), in Bismarck Archipelago.

VULNERABLE. Restricted-range species: present in New Britain and New Ireland EBA. Known only from type locality (and two specimens) and has not been found since its discovery (in Whiteman Mts) in Dec 1958; has been speculated that it might be present on adjacent New Ireland, but searches for it there have so far been unsuccessful, as have surveys of Mt Talawe and the Nakanai Mts in New Britain. Population estimated to number 250–1000 mature individuals, and is almost certainly declining given that 12% of forest was lost on New Britain between 1989 and 2000. Nevertheless, montane forest remains remarkably intact. Introduced mammalian predators, notably feral cats, are the most likely threats for these terrestrial birds.