Fawn-breasted Bowerbird

Open encyclopedia reference

The fawn-breasted bowerbird (Chlamydera cerviniventris) is a medium-sized, up to 32 cm (13 in) long, bowerbird with a greyish brown spotted white plumage, a black bill, dark brown iris, yellow mouth and an orange buff below. Both sexes are similar. The female is slightly smaller than the male. The fawn-breasted bowerbird is distributed throughout New Guinea and northern Cape York Peninsula in Queensland, where it inhabits tropical forests, mangroves, savanna woodlands and forest edges. Its diet consists mainly of figs, fruits and insects. The nest is a loose cup made of small sticks up in a tree. The bower itself is that of "avenue-type" with two side walls of sticks and usually decorated with green berries. A common species in its habitat range, the fawn-breasted bowerbird is evaluated as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The following is an account by expedition naturalist John MacGillivray from the Narrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake 1846-1850 Vol I. pp. 323–325. It describes the first recorded observation and specimen collection of the Chlamydera cerviniventris.

Wikipedia contributors, Fawn-breasted bowerbird; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T07:57:33.194016+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name

Chlamydera cerviniventris Gould, 1850

Name authority

Gould, 1850

Common name

Fawn-breasted Bowerbird

Rank

species

Accepted status

accepted

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Aves

Order

Passeriformes

Family

Ptilonorhynchidae

Genus

Chlamydera

Extinction status

Recorded extant

Classification family tree

Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.

1. domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
2. kingdomAnimalia
3. phylumChordata
4. subphylumVertebrata
5. infraphylumGnathostomata
6. parvphylumOsteichthyes
7. megaclassTetrapoda
8. classAves
9. orderPasseriformes
10. familyPtilonorhynchidae
11. genusChlamydera Gould, 1837
12. speciesChlamydera cerviniventris Gould, 1850

Close classified relatives

These entries share the source’s genus, Chlamydera. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.

Browse 19 records assigned to Ptilonorhynchidae.

Documented distribution

Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.

Source literature & publication evidence

References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.

1. Gould, & John. (1850). Note to Mr. Gould’s Paper - ’A brief account of the Researches of John M’Gillivray, Esq., in H.M.S. Rattlesnake,” &c. Contributions to Ornithology for 1850. Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references

Origins, evidence & remaining research

Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.

Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.

Dataset citation & attribution

This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11

Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.

Stable key: col:5Y92X. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.