shrike-thrush

These include northern logrunner or chowchilla Orthonyx spaldingii, little treecreeper Climacteris minor, Atherton scrubwren Sericornis keri, Australian fernwren Crateroscelis gutturalis, mountain thornbill Acanthiza katherina, bridled honeyeater Lichenostomus frenatus, Bower's shrike-thrush Colluricincla megarhyncha, tooth-billed catbird Ailuroedus dentirostris and golden bowerbird Prionodura newtoniana.

Wet Tropics of Queensland World Heritage Site, Australia 2008

Today, the only remaining habitat is a small patch of montane forest on top of an extinct volcano (Gunung Sahendaruman), thought to be the last home of the caerulean paradise-flycatcher and Sangihe white-eye, and last known stronghold for the Sangihe shrike-thrush (Colluricincla sanghirensis, CR) and elegant sunbird (Aethopyga duyvenbodei, EN).

Biological diversity in Wallacea 2008

Compare this mild evening, and all its pleasant pungencies and its vivid revelations of scenes that were blurred for weeks with haziness and smoke, with the past drought that is already almost incredible; and, if you are not harmonic and cannot sing a gladsome note, leave such gloating to the shrike-thrush, as he makes the gloomy dome of the mango resound with fluty whistling.

Last Leaves from Dunk Island 2003

Incidentally, (1) it seems that not all pitohui species are poisonous (although further study is required to be absolutely sure about this), (2) that another New Guinean passerine, the Rufous shrike-thrush Colluricincla megarhyncha, also produces batrachotoxin, and (3) that multiple other non-poisonous New Guinea passerines (including some other pitohuis) may mimic poisonous pitohuis and therefore gain protection from predators too (Diamond 1992, Dumbacher & Fleischer 2001).

Archive 2006-05-01 Darren Naish 2006