Great Shortwing Heinrichia calligyna Scientific name definitions

First discovered in 1930 by the near-legendary German collector Gerd Heinrich, whose name is honored in the monospecific genus Heinrichia, the Great Shortwing is an enigmatic species of montane forests on Sulawesi, Indonesia. It is an elusive, ground-dwelling, rotund-bodied passerine that favors rocky gulleys and overgrown valley streamsides—it is consequently fiendishly difficult to observe, and is often detected only by virtue of its loud, penetrating, and thrush-like vocalizations. Almost all facets of its biology and breeding behavior are unknown. Throughout Sulawesi, the plumage of males is comparatively homogenous: dark blue with blackish lores/face. However, there is marked variation in the female plumages, and apparently some differences in vocalizations also, indicating that multiple species may be involved. In addition, populations in north-central and eastern Sulawesi may yet prove to represent undescribed taxa.