Systematics

Almost universally considered a single species (12 Mayr, E., and J. C. Greenway, Editors (1962). Check-list of Birds of the World. A Continuation of the Work of James L. Peters. Volume 15. Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, MA, USA. Close , 8 Frith, C. B., and B. M. Beehler (1998). The Birds of Paradise. Paradisaeidae. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK. Close , 13 Dickinson, E. C., and L. Christidis, Editors (2014). The Howard and Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World. 4th edition. Volume 2: Passerines. Aves Press, Eastbourne, UK. Close , 14 Pratt, T. K., and B. M. Beehler (2015) Birds of New Guinea. Second edition. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, USA. Close , 15 Beehler, B. M., and T. K. Pratt (2016). Birds of New Guinea: Distribution, Taxonomy, and Systematics. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, USA. Close ), but Cracraft (16 Cracraft, J. (1992). The species of the birds-of-paradise (Paradisaeidae), applying the phylogentic species concept to a complex pattern of diversification. Cladistics 8(1):1–43. Close ), employing a phylogenetic species concept, and del Hoyo and Collar (17 del Hoyo, J., and N. J. Collar (2016). HBW and BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World. Volume 2: Passerines. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona, Spain. Close ) considered C. m. sanguineus to be specifically distinct. Adopting the Tobias et al. (18 Tobias, J. A., N. Seddon, C. N. Spottiswoode, J. D. Pilgrim, L. D. C. Fishpool, and N. J. Collar (2010). Quantitative criteria for species delimitation. Ibis 152(4):724–746. Close ) criteria (from which scores in parentheses are based) to infer species status, they separated sanguineus as having in males flame-red (versus orange-tinged yellow) upper body (score 3); a black (versus brown) bill (2); mid-brownish-purple (versus dark-edged buffy) crown plumes (2); and darker-shaded, more rufous-tinged tail and outer vanes of wings (not scored); also has marginally longer wings and a shorter tail (not scored).

All contemporary sources have followed Diamond (19 Diamond, J. M. (1972). Avifauna of the Eastern Highlands of New Guinea. Publications of the Nuttall Ornithological Club 12. Cambridge, MA, USA. Close ) in synonymizing C. m. kuboriensis with C. m. sanguineus, but there remains uncertainty over the taxonomic status of a population in the Western Range, which Beehler and Pratt (15 Beehler, B. M., and T. K. Pratt (2016). Birds of New Guinea: Distribution, Taxonomy, and Systematics. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, USA. Close ) postulated deserved taxonomic recognition, although they expressed uncertainty as to the geographic boundaries of this form (and indeed the species overall).

Although there is no evidence of hybridization involving this species (8 Frith, C. B., and B. M. Beehler (1998). The Birds of Paradise. Paradisaeidae. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK. Close ), sympatry between Crested Satinbird and Loria's Satinbird (Cnemophilus loriae) occurs at a few localities (20 Forshaw, J. M., and W. T. Cooper (1977). The Birds of Paradise and Bower Birds. Collins, Sydney, Australia. Close , 21 Frith, C. B., and D. W. Frith (1992). Annotated list of birds in western Tari Gap, Southern Highlands, Papua New Guinea, with some nidification notes. Australian Bird Watcher 14(7):262–276. Close , 9 Frith, C. B., and D. W. Frith (1993). Results of a preliminary highland bird banding study at Tari Gap, Southern Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea. Corella 17:5‒21. Close ) and the two could hybridize, whereas cross-breeding with any member of the Paradisaeidae is much more unlikely (8 Frith, C. B., and B. M. Beehler (1998). The Birds of Paradise. Paradisaeidae. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK. Close ).

Two major populations differ principally in their upperparts coloration in males and, less noticeably, in plume color, tail color, and morphometrics. However, their clear separation is to some extent confounded by birds in the Kratke Mts., which appear to be intermediate (8 Frith, C. B., and B. M. Beehler (1998). The Birds of Paradise. Paradisaeidae. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK. Close ).

Two subspecies recognized.

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EBIRD GROUP (MONOTYPIC)

Crested Satinbird (Red) Cnemophilus macgregorii sanguineus Scientific name definitions

• eBird map
• 52 photos
• 1 recordings

Systematics History

Cnemophilus sanguineus Iredale, 1948, Australian Zoologist 11:162.—Kumdi, Mt. Hagen District, Papua New Guinea. (22 Iredale, T. (1948). A check list of the birds of paradise and bowerbirds. Australian Zoologist 2:161–189. Close )

The holotype, an adult male collected by Captain N. B. Blood on 24 August 1944, is held at the Australian Museum, Sydney (AM O.37683); three paratypes are held in the same collection: an adult male collected at Moyani, also in Mount Hagen District, by Captain Blood on 23 September 1945 (AM O.38572); and two females, both taken by Blood at Lake Iviva, in the same district, on 7 July 1945 (AM O.38573 and O.38574) (23 Longmore, N. W. (1991). Type specimens of birds in the Australian Museum. Technical Reports of the Australian Museum 4:1–42. Close ).

Synonym:
Cnemophilus macgregorii kuboriensis, Mayr and Gilliard, 1954, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 103:361.—Mt. Orata, above Kup [06°06’S, 144°30’E], Kubor Mountains, New Guinea (4 Mayr, E., and E. T. Gilliard (1954). Birds of central New Guinea. Results of the American Museum of Natural History Expeditions to New Guinea in 1950 and 1952. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 103(4):311–374. Close ). The holotype is an adult male collected at ca. 9,000 ft. on 2 May 1952, by E. Thomas Gilliard, and held at the American Museum of Natural History, New York (AMNH 748584), and two paratypes (also males) both taken by the same collector, at 7,500 ft. on 26 May 1950, are held in the institution (AMNH 705701 and AMNH 705702) (24 LeCroy, M. (2014). Type specimens of birds in the American Museum of Natural History. Part 12. Passeriformes: Ploceidae, Sturnidae, Buphagidae, Oriolidae, Dicruridae, Callaeidae, Grallinidae, Corcoracidae, Artamidae, Cracticidae, Ptilonorhynchidae, Cnemophilidae, Paradisaeidae, and Corvidae. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 393:1–165. Close ). Described as being richer and more reddish upperparts, with less copper-red suffusion below, a slightly shorter tail and marginally longer wing. Maintained by Mayr and Greenway (12 Mayr, E., and J. C. Greenway, Editors (1962). Check-list of Birds of the World. A Continuation of the Work of James L. Peters. Volume 15. Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, MA, USA. Close ), but synonymized by Diamond (19 Diamond, J. M. (1972). Avifauna of the Eastern Highlands of New Guinea. Publications of the Nuttall Ornithological Club 12. Cambridge, MA, USA. Close ) on the basis that all of these characters are variable, minor, and insufficient. Subsequent authors appear to have universally followed Diamond.

Distribution

Mountains of eastern New Guinea (Kaijende Highlands, Mt. Giluwe, and Mt. Hagen region east to at least the Bismarck Mts. and the Kubor Range); also an undiagnosed population in the highlands of central New Guinea (north of Lake Habbema), in Indonesia (15 Beehler, B. M., and T. K. Pratt (2016). Birds of New Guinea: Distribution, Taxonomy, and Systematics. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, USA. Close ).

Field Identification

Differs from the nominate in its more intense, flame-red (versus orange-yellow) upperparts, blacker bill, brownish-purple crown plumes, and a darker, more rufous tone to the tail and outer wing. Averages longer winged and shorter tailed, but these differences are relatively trivial. Mensural data below from Frith and Beehler (8 Frith, C. B., and B. M. Beehler (1998). The Birds of Paradise. Paradisaeidae. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK. Close ).

	Male	Female
Wing length	110‒118 (115, n = 30)	101‒115 (111, n = 24)
Tail length	86‒96 (90, n = 29)	80‒97 (89, n = 24)
Bill length	26‒31 (29, n = 26)	23‒28 (26, n = 23)
Tarsus length	38‒44 (41, n = 30)	38‒43 (40, n = 24)

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EBIRD GROUP (MONOTYPIC)

Crested Satinbird (Yellow) Cnemophilus macgregorii macgregorii Scientific name definitions

• eBird map
• 0 photos
• 0 recordings

Systematics History

Cnemophilus macgregorii De Vis, 1890, Annual Report of British New Guinea 1888-89:62.—Mt. Knutsford, 11,000 ft., Owen Stanley Mountains.

The holotype, an adult male collected at the behest of Sir William MacGregor, is held at the Queensland Museum, Brisbane (QM O.19429) (25 Ingram, G. J. (1987). Avian type specimens in the Queensland Museum. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 25(1):239–254. Close ).

Synonym:
Xanthomelus macgregori Goodwin, 1890, Ibis 6(2):153.—Mt. Musgrave, Owen Stanley Range. The whereabouts of the single specimen, evidently a male which lost its tail when shot, collected by A. P. Goodwin, is unknown. Originally thought to be a regent bowerbird (Xanthomelus = Sericulus) (see 8 Frith, C. B., and B. M. Beehler (1998). The Birds of Paradise. Paradisaeidae. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK. Close ) and local people in some parts of New Guinea still believe that this species is a bowerbird (2 Gregory, P. (2019). Birds of Paradise and Bowerbirds. Bloomsbury, London, UK. Close ).

Distribution

Southeastern peninsular New Guinea, from at least the Ekuti Divide, south of Wau, to Mt. Knutsford, and north-east Port Moresby, as well as perhaps farther south (see Distribution).

Field Identification

Described under Plumages.

Traditionally considered to be a bird-of-paradise (Paradisaeidae) (e.g., by 12 Mayr, E., and J. C. Greenway, Editors (1962). Check-list of Birds of the World. A Continuation of the Work of James L. Peters. Volume 15. Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, MA, USA. Close , 26 Gilliard, E. T. (1969). Birds of Paradise and Bower Birds. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, UK. Close , 27 Peckover, W. S. (1990). Papua New Guinea Birds of Paradise. Robert Brown and Associates, Carina, Queensland, Australia. Close , 8 Frith, C. B., and B. M. Beehler (1998). The Birds of Paradise. Paradisaeidae. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK. Close ), but recent molecular-phylogenetic studies have revealed that the three species of satinbirds comprise a distinct lineage quite distant from the Paradisaeidae, although their precise placement is perhaps still arguable (28 Irestedt, M., and J. I. Ohlson (2008). The division of the major songbird radiation into Passerida and ‘core Corvoidea’ (Aves: Passeriformes) — the species tree vs. gene trees. Zoologica Scripta 37(3):305–313. Close , 29 Jønsson, K. A., P. H. Fabre, R. E. Ricklefs, and J. Fjeldså (2011). Major global radiation of corvoid birds originated in the proto-Papuan archipelago. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 108(6):2328–2333. Close , 30 Aggerbeck, M., J. Fjeldså, L. Christidis, P. H. Fabre, and K. A. Jønsson (2014). Resolving deep lineage divergences in core corvoid passerine birds supports a proto-Papuan island origin. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 70(2):272–285. Close ). Cracraft and Feinstein (31 Cracraft, J., and J. Feinstein (2000). What is not a bird of paradise? Molecular and morphological evidence places Macgregoria in the Meliphagidae and the Cnemophilinae near the base of the corvoid tree. Proceedings of the Royal Society London (Series B Biological Sciences) 267(1440):233‒241. Close ) were the first authors to cast doubt on the traditional view that satinbirds represent a distinct subfamily (Cnemophilinae) of the Paradisaeidae, despite superficial morphological similarities and polygynous court-display behaviors, and thereafter Barker et al. (32 Barker, F. K., A. Cibois, P. Schikler, J. Feinstein, and J. Cracraft (2004). Phylogeny and diversification of the largest avian radiation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 101(30):11040–11045. Close ) provided molecular evidence that satinbirds are sister to the Callaeidae (New Zealand wattlebirds), with these two being sister to the Melanocharitidae (berrypeckers and longbills). Jønsson et al. (29 Jønsson, K. A., P. H. Fabre, R. E. Ricklefs, and J. Fjeldså (2011). Major global radiation of corvoid birds originated in the proto-Papuan archipelago. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 108(6):2328–2333. Close ) proffered confirmation of these relationships, but other phylogenies (28 Irestedt, M., and J. I. Ohlson (2008). The division of the major songbird radiation into Passerida and ‘core Corvoidea’ (Aves: Passeriformes) — the species tree vs. gene trees. Zoologica Scripta 37(3):305–313. Close , 30 Aggerbeck, M., J. Fjeldså, L. Christidis, P. H. Fabre, and K. A. Jønsson (2014). Resolving deep lineage divergences in core corvoid passerine birds supports a proto-Papuan island origin. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 70(2):272–285. Close ) have recovered conflicting hypotheses, whilst nevertheless demonstrating the only distant relationship to birds-of-paradise. Crested Satinbird proves, unsurprisingly, to be sister to its sole congeneric, Loria's Satinbird (Cnemophilus loriae), and these two are sister to the only other member of the family, Yellow-breasted Satinbird (Loboparadisea sericea).

No information.