The fawn-breasted bowerbird (Chlamydera cerviniventris ) is a medium-sized, up to 32 cm (13 in) long, bowerbird with a greyish brown spotted white plumage, a black bill, dark brown iris, yellow mouth and an orange buff below. Both sexes are similar. The female is slightly smaller than the male.
The Fawn-breasted Bowerbird is distributed throughout New Guinea and northern Cape York Peninsula, where it inhabits the tropical forests, mangroves, savanna woodlands and forest edges. Its diet consists mainly of figs, fruits and insects. The nest is a loose cup made of small sticks up in a tree. The bower itself is that of "avenue-type" with two sides of wall of sticks and usually decorated with green-colored berries.
A common species in its habitat range, the Fawn-breasted Bowerbird is evaluated as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
The following is an account by expedition naturalist John MacGillivray from the Narrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake 1846-1850 Vol I. pp. 323–325. It describes the first recorded observation and specimen collection of the Chlamydera cerviniventris.
