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Sandhill grasswren
Conservation status
Not evaluated (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Maluridae
Genus:	Amytornis
Species:	A. oweni
Binomial name
Amytornis oweni Mathews, 1911

The sandhill grasswren (Amytornis oweni) is an insectivorous bird in the Australasian wren family Maluridae. It is found in sandplain deserts and mallee of central Western Australia to central Queensland as well as northwest and southern South Australia. It was formerly considered to be conspecific with the Pilbara grasswren.

Taxonomy

The sandhill grasswren was formally described in 1911 by the Australian born ornithologist Gregory Mathews based on a specimen collected in East Murchison of Western Australia. He considered his specimen to represent a subspecies of the striated grasswren and coined the trinomial name Amytornis striatus oweni. He chose the specific epithet to honour his son-in-law Colonel Richard Owen Wynne. The sandhill grasswren was formerly considered to be conspecific with the rufous grasswren (Amytornis whitei)(since renamed the Pilbara grasswren). It is now treated as a separate species based on differences in morphology and ecology.

Two subspecies are recognised:

• A. o. oweni Mathews, 1911 – sandplain deserts of central Western Australia to central Queensland and northwest South Australia
• A. o. aenigma Black, 2020 – mallee sand plain of west Eyre Peninsula, south South Australia

References

1. Mathews, Gregory (1911). "Mr. G. M. Mathews exhibited and described an example of a new subspecies of grass-wren". Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club. 27: 48.
2. Mayr, Ernst; Cottrell, G. William, eds. (1986). Check-List of Birds of the World. Vol. 11. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 408.
3. Jobling, James A. "oweni". The Key to Scientific Names. Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Retrieved 3 October 2024.
4. ^ Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (August 2024). "Lyrebirds, scrubbirds, bowerbirds, Australasian treecreepers, Australasian wrens". IOC World Bird List Version 14.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 4 October 2024.
5. Christidis, L.; Rheindt, F.; Boles, W.; Norman, J. (2013). "A re-appraisal of species diversity within the Australian grasswrens Amytornis (Aves: Maluridae)". Australian Zoologist. 36 (4): 429–437. doi:10.7882/AZ.2013.004.

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• Amytornis
• Endemic birds of Western Australia
• Birds described in 1911
• Meliphagoidea stubs