Aust birds    Bird names   News   1-26    Habitats    Key plants    Glossary    Plumage    Nests    Tips    Thumbnails    Gen. info    Sponsors    Photos for sale   
NON-PASSERINES     1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9    10     11     12     13     14 15     16     17     18     19     20     21     22     23     24     25     26     PASSERINES
Common names sorted alphabetically: A   B   C   D   E   F   G   H   I   J   K   L   M   N   O   P   Q   R   S   T   W   Y  

23

Tooth-billed Bowerbird

(Scenopoeetes dentirostris)
Alternate name(s): "Tooth-billed Catbird", "Stage-maker", "Leaf-turner"
Aboriginal name(s): "wirranba" [ngadjon]

Size: 26-28 cm
Weight: 130-200 g
Description     Classification     Distribution     Sightings     Photos     Breeding     Nest     Eggs     Behaviour     Food     Call/s

Physical description

Click here for a physical description

Taxonomy, classification

See Tooth-billed Bowerbird at Wikipedia .

Range, habitat, finding this species

Click here for information on habitat and range

Sightings

Click here for sighting information

Photos

ADULT

MALE

Full-frontal view of a male Tooth-billed Bowerbird (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Mount Lewis NP, near Burtons Ridge, QLD, November 2018]

Frontal view of a male Tooth-billed Bowerbird (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Mount Lewis NP, near Burtons Ridge, QLD, November 2018]

Frontal/ventral view of a male Tooth-billed Bowerbird (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Mount Lewis NP, near Burtons Ridge, QLD, November 2018]

Near-frontal view of a male Tooth-billed Bowerbird (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Mount Lewis NP, near Burtons Ridge, QLD, November 2018]

Near-frontal view of a male Tooth-billed Bowerbird issuing its call (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Mount Lewis NP, near Burtons Ridge, QLD, November 2018]

Near-lateral view of a male Tooth-billed Bowerbird issuing its call (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Mount Lewis NP, near Burtons Ridge, QLD, November 2018]

Lateral view of a male Tooth-billed Bowerbird (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Mount Lewis NP, near Burtons Ridge, QLD, November 2018]

FEMALE

Frontal view of a female Tooth-billed Bowerbird; note the orange gape (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Mount Lewis NP, near Burtons Ridge, QLD, November 2018]

Near-lateral view of a female Tooth-billed Bowerbird (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Paluma Rainforest, near Townsville, QLD, September 2020]

Near-dorsal view of a female Tooth-billed Bowerbird (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Mount Lewis NP, near Burtons Ridge, QLD, November 2018]

Breeding information

Twitcher's tip

A bower is NOT a nest - it is a male bird's courting alley. Nests, built by female birds, are in fact kept well away from bowers.

Behaviour

Social behaviour: Territorial Mobility: Sedentary/roaming Elementary unit: Solitary

Male birds are sedentary, females are roaming.

Telescopic view of a Tooth-billed Bowerbird's "bower", which is more similar to the scrape of a male Superb Lyrebird than other bowerbirds' bowers (photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Mount Lewis NP, near Burtons Ridge, QLD, November 2018]

Call(s)/Song

For this species we have recorded the following call(s)/song. The interpretation of their meaning is our own; comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

tbbower_me_20200927.m4a (N QLD) Display songs © ME
tbbower_me_20200927_4.m4a (N QLD) Various © ME
tbbower_me_20200927_5.m4a (N QLD) Various © ME
tbbower_me_20200927_6.m4a (N QLD) Various © ME
tbbower_me_20200927_7.m4a (N QLD) Mimicry
(Bower's Shrike-thrush)
© ME
tbbower_me_20200927_2.m4a (N QLD) ? © ME
tbbower_me_20200927_3.m4a (N QLD) ? © ME

More Tooth-billed Bowerbird sound recordings are available at xeno-canto.org .

These pages are largely based on our own observations and those of our contributors. The structure of these bird pages is explained HERE. For more salient facts on any bird species please refer to a field guide.

Would you like to contribute photos or sound recordings to this site?
If interested, please CLICK HERE. Credits to contributors are given HERE.