Archbold's bowerbird

It is medium-sized, dark grey songbird with brown iris, grey feet and black bill. The male has narrow black scalloping with golden yellow crown feathers. The female is smaller than the male, with yellow patch on the wing and has no crown feathering.

Taxonomy

Archbold's bowerbird was formally described in 1940 by the Canadian zoologist Austin L. Rand from a male specimen collected at an altitude of 2,200 m (7,200 ft) 18 km (11 mi) north of Lake Habbema in the Snow Mountains of Western New Guinea. Rand erected a new genus, Archboldia, and coined the binomial name Archboldia papuensis. The genus and common names honour the American zoologist Richard Archbold. A molecular phylogenetic study by Per Ericson and collaborators published in 2020 found that Archbold's bowerbird was embedded in the genus Amblyornis.

Two subspecies are recognised:

• A. p. papuensis Rand, 1940 – montane central west New Guinea
• A. p. sanfordi Mayr & Gilliard, 1950 – montane central east New Guinea

The subspecies A. p. sanfordi, Sanford's bowerbird, has sometimes been treated as a separate species.