NATURAL HISTORY · CATALOGUE RECORD
Brown Sicklebill
Epimachus meyeri Finsch & A. B. Meyer, 1886
Source-backed taxonomic record
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
Open encyclopedia reference
The brown sicklebill (Epimachus meyeri) is a species of bird-of-paradise that is found in the mountain forests of New Guinea.
Its appearance resembles the closely related and larger black sicklebill. In areas where these two large sicklebills met, the brown sicklebill replaced the latter species in higher altitudes. Its diet consists mainly of fruits, arthropods and small animals. The male has a staccato, burst-like call which resembles a burst of automatic gunfire.
The brown sicklebill is evaluated as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. It is listed on Appendix II of CITES.
Wikipedia contributors, Brown sicklebill; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T05:25:09.022902+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Epimachus meyeri Finsch & A. B. Meyer, 1886
- Name authority
- Finsch & A. B. Meyer, 1886
- Common name
- Brown Sicklebill
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Aves
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Paradisaeidae
- Genus
- Epimachus
- 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.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumOsteichthyes
- megaclassTetrapoda
- classAves
- orderPasseriformes
- familyParadisaeidae Vigors, 1825
- genusEpimachus Cuvier, 1816
- speciesEpimachus meyeri Finsch & A. B. Meyer, 1886
Close classified relatives
No other member of this genus is present in the selected snapshot.
Names & synonyms
Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.
| Recorded name | Source status |
|---|---|
| Epimachus meyeri albicans (Oort, 1915) (Oort, 1915) | synonym |
| Epimachus meyeri bloodi Mayr & Gilliard, 1951 Mayr & Gilliard, 1951 | synonym |
| Epimachus meyeri meyeri Finsch & A. B. Meyer, 1886 Finsch & A. B. Meyer, 1886 | synonym |
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.
- Finsch, Friedrich Hermann Otto, & and Adolf Bernhard Meyer. (1886). Vögel von Neu Guinea, zumeist aus der Alpen-region am südostabhange des Owen-Stanley-Gebirges (Hufeisengebirge 7000-8000′ hoch), gesammelt von Karl Hunstein. I. Paradiseidae. Zeitschrift Für Die Gesammte Ornithologie, Vol. 2. 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:6FT2Z. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.