Thick-billed grasswren
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Maluridae
Genus: Amytornis
Species:
A. modestus
Binomial name
Amytornis modestus
(North, 1902)
Subspecies

See text

Synonyms
  • Amytis modesta
  • Amytornis textilis modestus

The thick-billed grasswren (Amytornis modestus) is a species of bird in the family Maluridae. It is endemic to Australia. Its natural habitat is Mediterranean-type shrubby vegetation.

Taxonomy and systematics

The thick-billed grasswren was formerly considered as conspecific with the western grasswren until split as a separate species in 2010.[2]

Subspecies

Seven subspecies have been identified in recent studies (Black 2011, 2016; Austin et al. 2013):[3][4][5]

Description

Illustration from 1910

The thick-billed grasswren has dull brown underparts, a long dark-brown tail and noticeable white streaking on the head. It has white streaks continuing down the neck, throat and down to the rump. The white streaks across the chin to the forehead and along the wings and rump, contrast with the red-brown to grey colours of the feathers. Males have distinguishably longer tails. Females also have chestnut flanks. Vocals are a combination of short high-pitched song, repeated. They have a soft, high-pitched call that is often inaudible to human ears.

Distribution and habitat

The thick-billed grasswren is endemic to Australia and is found throughout the arid regions of northwestern New South Wales, northern parts of South Australia, through to southern sections of the Northern Territory.[6][7] It is also speculated to still occur in fragmented populations in the Grey Range of Sturt National Park.

Chenopod scrublands (consisting largely of saltbush), sandhill cane-grass and flood debris in dry, sandy watercourses. They favour the scrublands with dense chenopod bushes. These denser shrublands usually occur in lower-lying areas, such as watercourses and drainage lines.

Behaviour and ecology

Thick-billed grasswrens are usually sedentary, with these elusive birds seen running, hopping or rarely flying, between vegetative cover to remain undetected. They can also be seen foraging for food at ground level around vegetation. Wrens have a generalist beak type that allows them to eat a range of foods. The thick bill allows for tougher seeds and other food niches to be accessed, compared with the smaller fairy wren species. If disturbed, individuals take refuge in any existing cover – usually vegetation or piles of old flood debris along dry sandy watercourses and even down rabbit burrows. They are often seen solitarily or in pairs. Sources vary, but mating pairs maintain between five, and 20 to 40 hectare territories year-round and rarely, possibly never, band with their neighbours outside the breeding season. Family groups are sometimes seen during the post-fledgling period, while the young are still dependent on their parents.[8] The feather patterns/markings imitate their preferred habitat as a form of camouflage.

Breeding

Breeding occurs between July and September. Nests can usually be seen in low branches in saltbush, can-grass and other similar vegetation. The nest composes of loose grass and bark in the shape of a half dome, with finer grass, fur, feathers lining the nest. One to three (usually two) eggs of various colourings of white, cream and pink; with blotches of red-brown or purplish grey. They have an incubation period of two weeks and fledge in 10–12 days. The estimated generation length of the thick-billed grasswren is four years .

Feeding

The thick-billed grasswren eats mainly insects and other small invertebrates, as well as plant seeds and berries.

Conservation status

The main threat to thick-billed grasswrens is loss of habitat through clearing and overgrazing by hard-hooved animals, such as sheep and goats that trample the vegetation. This reduces the area and quality of the habitat that the thick-billed grasswren prefer, particularly the larger shrubs that provide prime habitat for breeding. Habitat modification has also occurred due to rabbits. Feral species, such as foxes and cats are major threats due to predation.

High-frequency bushires are also a threat to the quality of habitat. Higher frequency of fires disrupts the life-cycle processes of the thick-billed grasswren, as well as the plants and macroinvertebrates that they depend on. All threats have been compounded by droughts over the past decade. Changes in expected environmental conditions will also challenge tolerance ranges and exacerbate the impacts of existing threats to the species.

The thick-billed grasswren is a poor flyer, and because of this has a poor dispersal capability and is highly susceptible to population fragmentation.

The thick-billed grasswren was listed as a vulnerable species under the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) on 26 July 2000, and as critically endangered under the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016 (NSW) (February 2022 list) in New South Wales. However the IUCN Red List (2021.3 list) accords it a status of "least concern", as of July 2022.[9]

The subspecies Amytornis modestus obscurior (north-west NSW) is listed as critically endangered by both the New South Wales and Commonwealth Governments.[10]

A 2018 study ranked the species eighth in a list of Australian birds most likely to go extinct.[11]

References

  1. ↑ BirdLife International (2016). "Amytornis modestus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016: e.T103684164A104084610. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T103684164A104084610.en. Retrieved 13 November 2021.
  2. ↑ "Species Version 2 – IOC World Bird List". IOC World Bird List – Version 12.1. 18 October 2011. Retrieved 12 July 2022.
  3. ↑ Hope, B.; Kerle, A. (April 2020). Conservation Assessment of Thick billed Grasswren Amytornis modestus inexpectatus (Matthews, 1912) (Maluridae) (PDF) (Report). NSW Threatened Species Scientific Committee, NSW Govt. Retrieved 12 July 2022.
  4. ↑ "Thick-billed Grasswren Amytornis modestus Species No.: 8022 Band size: 04 (03) AY" (PDF). Australian Bird Study Association Inc. – Bird in the Hand (Second Edition), published. October 2019. Compiled by J.W. Hardy for the Australian Bird Study Association Inc. and reproduced with permission of BirdLife Australia
  5. ↑ Black, Andrew. (2011). Subspecies of the Thick-Billed Grasswren Amytornis Modestus (Aves-Maluridae). Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia. 135.
  6. ↑ "Amytornis modestus — Thick-billed Grasswren (eastern)". Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities. Australian Government. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
  7. ↑ Black, Andrew; Carpenter, Graham; Pedler, Lynn (September 2011). "Distribution and habitats of the Thick-billed Grasswren Amytornis modestus and comparison with the Western Grasswren Amytornis textilis myall in South Australia" (PDF). South Australian Ornithologist. 37 (2): 60–80. Retrieved 9 October 2015.
  8. ↑ Energy, Department of the Environment and (4 July 2013). "Thick-billed Grasswren (Eastern Subspecies) (Amytornis textilis modestus) (North, 1902) Recovery Plan". www.environment.gov.au. Retrieved 25 July 2017.
  9. ↑ "Amytornis modestus — Thick-billed Grasswren". Species Profile and Threats Database. Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, Australian Government. 7 July 2022. Retrieved 7 July 2022.
  10. ↑ "Thick-billed Grasswren (north-west NSW subspecies) - profile". NSW Government. Office of Environment & Heritage. 29 November 2021. Retrieved 12 July 2022.
  11. ↑ Geyle, Hayley M.; Woinarski, John C. Z.; et al. (20 April 2018). "Quantifying extinction risk and forecasting the number of impending Australian bird and mammal extinctions". Pacific Conservation Biology. 24 (2): 157–167. doi:10.1071/PC18006. hdl:10536/DRO/DU:30109156. ISSN 2204-4604. Retrieved 11 July 2022. PDF

Barrett, G.W., Silcocks, A.F., Cunningham, R., Oliver, D.L., Weston, M.A. & Baker, J. (2007). Comparison of atlas data to determine the conservation status of bird species in New South Wales, with an emphasis on woodland-dependent species. Australian Zoologist, 34, 37–77.

Cayley, N. W., Chisholm, A. H., Hindwood, K., McGill, A. R., Roberts, P., & Lindsey, T. (1991). What bird is that? Angus & Robertson: Australia.

Garnett, S. & Crowley, G. (Eds) (2000). ‘The Action Plan for Australian Birds 2000’. (Environment Australia: Canberra).

Government of South Australia, South Australian Arid Lands Natural Resource Management Board (2011). Fact sheet: thick-billed grasswrens. Retrieved from www.saalnrm.sa.gov.au

Higgins, P.J., Peter, J.M. & Steele WK (Eds) (2001). Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds, vol. 5. (Oxford University Press: Melbourne).

McAllan, IAW (1987). Early records of the Thick-billed Grasswren Amytornis textilis and Striated Grasswren Amytornis striatus. Australian Birds 21, 33–34.

McAllan, IAW (2000). On some New South Wales records of the Grey Grasswren and the Thickbilled Grasswren. Australian Bird Watcher, 18, 244–246.

NPWS (2002). Thick-billed Grasswren (eastern subspecies) Amytornis textilis modestus (North, 1902) Recovery Plan. NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, Hurstville NSW.

Pizzey, G., & Knight, F. (2012). The field guide to the birds of Australia. Harper Collins Publishers: Australia.

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