NATURAL HISTORY · CATALOGUE RECORD
Black Grasswren
Amytornis housei (Milligan, 1902)
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.
Amytornis housei, Wyndham-East Kimberley, AU-WA, AU, 2024-07-09 (iNaturalist).
Robert Clayton · CC BY 4.0 · Image sourceProvider-generated thumbnail requested at 800 pixels; no local editing Local WebP display rendition; resized without cropping.
Open encyclopedia reference
The black grasswren (Amytornis housei), known as dalal to the Wunambal people, is a species of bird in the family Maluridae. It is endemic to Western Australia. Naturalist Frederick Maurice House discovered the black grasswren in 1901, as a part of a surveying party led by Frederick Slade Drake-Brockman through the Kimberley in northwestern Australia. He collected a single specimen. Alexander William Milligan, consulting ornithologist at the Western Australian Museum, named it after House when he described the species. The bird was not seen again until 1968, when Dan Freeman of the Natural History Museum led a party to the same area to find it. Its natural habitat is Mediterranean-type shrubby vegetation and open woodland, punctuated by large sandstone boulders and slabs. It inhabits the Mitchell River National Park in the Kimberley region of north-west WA. It has been classified as least concern. Bushfires have become more frequent, as has rainfall, which has altered the landscape. Black grasswrens are not highly mobile and have possibly become locally extinct around Manning Creek due to fire before 2007.
Wikipedia contributors, Black grasswren; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T04:40:44.614098+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Amytornis housei (Milligan, 1902)
- Name authority
- (Milligan, 1902)
- Common name
- Black Grasswren
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Aves
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Maluridae
- Genus
- Amytornis
- 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
- familyMaluridae
- genusAmytornis Stejneger, 1885
- speciesAmytornis housei (Milligan, 1902)
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Amytornis. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Kalkadoon GrasswrenAmytornis ballarae Condon, 1969 | MaluridaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Eyrean GrasswrenAmytornis goyderi (Gould, 1875) | MaluridaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Short-tailed GrasswrenAmytornis merrotsyi Mellor, 1913 | MaluridaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Dusky GrasswrenAmytornis purnelli (Mathews, 1914) | MaluridaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Striated GrasswrenAmytornis striatus (Gould, 1840) | MaluridaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Western GrasswrenAmytornis textilis (Quoy & Gaimard, 1824) | MaluridaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Sandhill GrasswrenAmytornis oweni Mathews, 1911 | MaluridaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
Names & synonyms
Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.
| Recorded name | Source status |
|---|---|
| Amytis housei Milligan, 1902 Milligan, 1902 | 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.
- https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=558564 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.
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:D9PZ. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.