The masked bowerbird (Sericulus aureus) is endemic to rainforests of New Guinea. It is one of the most brilliantly coloured bowerbirds. The male is a medium-sized bird, up to 25 cm long, with flame orange and golden yellow plumage, elongated neck plumes and yellow-tipped black tail. It builds an "avenue-type" bower with two side walls of sticks. The female is an olive brown bird with yellow or golden below.
The masked bowerbird was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Coracias aurea.[1] He cited the earlier description and illustration of the "golden bird of paradise" by the English naturalist George Edwards.[2] Linnaeus specified the type locality as Asia but this has been corrected to the Bird's Head Peninsula (Vogelkop) in northwestern New Guinea.[3] The specific epithet aureus is Latin meaning "golden.[4] The masked bowerbird is now one of four species placed in the genus Sericulus that was introduced in 1825 by the English ornithologist William Swainson. The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.[5]
The masked bowerbird is distributed in and endemic to rainforests of New Guinea. This species is the first bowerbird described by naturalists. Because of the male's beautifully coloured plumage, it was previously thought to be a bird-of-paradise. Indeed, the male flame bowerbird also has a courtship display along with his bower. He twists his tails and his wings to the side, and then shakes his head quickly.
The masked bowerbird is evaluated as least concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.