Garritornis isidorei
TAXONOMY
Pomatorhinus isidorei Lesson, 1827, Dorei Harbor (Manokwari, Cendrawasi). Two subspecies.
OTHER COMMON NAMES
English: New Guinea babbler, Isidore's babbler; French: Pomatostome Isidore; German: Beutelsäbler; Spanish: Hablantín de Isidore.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
Slender, medium-sized pseudo babbler, 9–10 in (23–25 cm);2.2–2.6 oz (65–75 g). Adults and immature birds are uniformly rich russet-brown all over, with yellowish bill and dusky feet; eyes are pale cream in adults, brown in immature birds.
DISTRIBUTION
All lowland New Guinea and Misool Island up to about 1,500 ft (500 m) altitude.
HABITAT
Interior lower stages and floor of primary and tall secondary rainforest, usually within 33–49 ft (10–15 m) of ground.
BEHAVIOR
In permanent territorial groups of usually 5–10 birds, mixing with other species in foraging parties in under-shrubbery and low trees, traveling quickly by powerful hopping. Groups tight and call continually with soft and loud whistles, rasps, and yodels. They apparently roost communally at night in one nest that is used for a season.
FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET
Forages mainly by probing bark and crannies on trunks and branchlets of forest substage but also digs in litter of jungle
floor. Diet includes a range of arthropods; small reptiles also taken.
REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY
Poorly documented. Nests are pensile, massively elongate, and slung from the ends of fronds (usually rattan palms) at 10–26 ft (3–8 m) above the forest floor. Nests are built by the senior pair and helpers. The clutch, probably incubated by the female alone, is usually of two eggs, about 1.1 by 0.7 in (28 by 18 mm), and scribbled all over as in other pseudo babblers. Both parents, at least, feed the young.
CONSERVATION STATUS
Not threatened.
SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS
Some totemic significance for some lowland tribal groups in New Guinea.
