Large scrubwren

The large scrubwren (Sericornis nouhuysi) is a bird species. Placed in the family Pardalotidae in the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy, this has met with opposition and indeed is now known to be wrong; they rather belong to the independent family Acanthizidae.

Large scrubwren
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Acanthizidae
Genus:	Sericornis
Species:	S. nouhuysi
Binomial name
Sericornis nouhuysi van Oort, 1909

It is found in New Guinea. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist montane forests.

Taxonomy

The large scrubwren was formally described in 1909 by the Dutch ornithologist Eduard Daniël van Oort based on a specimen collected in the Jayawijaya Mountains of western New Guinea by the Dutch explorer Hendrikus Albertus Lorentz. Van Oort considered the specimen to be a subspecies on the grey-green scrubwren (Aethomyias arfakianus) and coined the trinomial name Sericornis arfakiana nouhuysi. He chose the epithet nouhuysi to honour Jan Willem van Nouhuys, Lorentz's travelling companion.^[2][3][4]

Ten subspecies are recognised:^[5]

• S. n. cantans Mayr, 1930 – montane Bird south Head and Arfak Mts. (northwest New Guinea)
• S. n. nouhuysi van Oort, 1909 – montane central west New Guinea
• S. n. idenburgi Rand, 1941 – Gauttier Mountains and slopes above Idenburg River (northwest New Guinea)
• S. n. stresemanni Mayr, 1930 – montane central, central east New Guinea
• S. n. adelberti Pratt, 1982 – Adelbert Range (northeast New Guinea)
• S. n. oorti Rothschild & Hartert, EJO, 1913 – Huon Peninsula and Herzog Mountains (northeast New Guinea)
• S. n. monticola Mayr & Rand, 1936 – montane southeast New Guinea
• S. n. jobiensis Stresemann & Paludan, 1932 – Yapen (Geelvink Bay Islands, northwest New Guinea)
• S. n. pontifex Stresemann, 1921 – Victor Emanuel Mountains, Hunstein Range and Sepik Mountains (central north New Guinea)
• S. n. virgatus (Reichenow, 1915) – central north, northeast New Guinea (Bewani Mountains, Torricelli Mountains, Prince Alexander Mountains, and north slopes of Sepik-Ramu drainage. (includes boreonesioticus)

Subspecies S. n. virgatus, S. n. jobiensis and S. n. pontifex have sometimes been considered as a separate species, the perplexing scrubwren.^[5]