Tooth-billed Catbird

About the Tooth-billed Catbird

The tooth-billed bowerbird (Scenopoeetes dentirostris), also known as the stagemaker bowerbird or tooth-billed catbird, is a species of passerine bird in the bowerbird family Ptilonorhynchidae. It is the only species placed in the genus Scenopoeetes. It is found in the Cape York Peninsula and northeast Queensland of northeast Australia.

The tooth-billed bowerbird was formally described in 1876 by the Australian zoologist Edward Pierson Ramsay. He introduced a new genus Scenopoeus and coined the binomial name Scenopoeus dentirostris. Unfortunately the name Scenopoeus had earlier been used by Louis Agassiz for a genus of insects and in 1891 the American ornithologist Elliott Coues introduced a replacement name, Scenopoeetes. The genus name Scenopoeetes combines the Ancient Greek σκηνη/skēnē meaning "stage" or "tent" with ποιητης/poiētēs meaning "maker". The specific epithet dentirostris is derived from Latin dens, dentis meaning "tooth" and "-rostris" meaning "-billed". The tooth-billed bowerbird is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.

The tooth-billed bowerbird is a medium-sized (approximately 27 centimetres (11 in) long) bowerbird. It is a stocky... Wikipedia →