Nesting biology of the Wet Tropics endemic Fernwren Oreoscopus gutturalis

Abstract

Long-term mist-netting on the Paluma Range, far North Queensland, resulted in 108 captures involving 58 individuals and 50 recaptures of the Wet Tropics endemic and monotypic Fernwren Oreoscopus gutturalis, providing biometrical data for comparison between adults and fledglings. During 1978–1990, 1995 and 1997 fieldwork on bowerbirds, 15 Fernwren nests were found opportunistically at various stages of the nesting cycle, and their sites are described. Egg sizes and weights and the long incubation period, parental provisioning rates to nestlings, nestling growth rates, and long nestling period involving data from eight Fernwren nests are presented and discussed.